North American plate

North American plate
Map of the North American plate
TypeMajor
Approximate area75,900,000 km2 (29,300,000 sq mi)[1]
Movement1west
Speed115–25 mm (0.59–0.98 in)/year
FeaturesNorth America, Greenland, Bering Sea, Atlantic Ocean, northern Caribbean, Arctic Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, Russian Far East (i.e. part of Siberia), Azores (part of), Iceland (part of, also on Eurasian plate)
1Relative to the African plate
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The North American plate is a tectonic plate containing most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of 76 million km2 (29 million sq mi), it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific plate (which borders the plate to the west).

It extends eastward to the seismically active Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the Azores Triple Junction plate boundary where it meets the Eurasian plate and Nubian plate.[2][3] and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes both continental and oceanic crust. The interior of the main continental landmass includes an extensive granitic core called a craton. Along most of the edges of this craton are fragments of crustal material called terranes, which are accreted to the craton by tectonic actions over a long span of time. Much of North America west of the Rocky Mountains is composed of such terranes.

  1. ^ "Sizes of Tectonic or Lithospheric Plates". Geology.about.com. 2014-03-05. Archived from the original on 2016-06-05. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
  2. ^ F.O. Marques, J.C. Catalão, C.DeMets, A.C.G. Costa, A. Hildenbrand (2013). "GPS and tectonic evidence for a diffuse plate boundary at the Azores Triple Junction" (PDF). Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 381: 177–187. Bibcode:2013E&PSL.381..177M. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.08.051.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Machado, Adriane; Azevedo, José M. M.; Alemeida, Delia P.M.; Farid Chemale Jr. (2008). "Geochemistry of Volcanic Rocks from Faial Island (Azores)" (PDF). Lisbon: e-Terra, GEOTIC – Sociedade Geológica de Portugal. pp. 1–14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2010.