North American plate

North American plate
Type	Major
Approximate area	75,900,000 km2 (29,300,000 sq mi)[1]
Movement1	west
Speed1	15–25 mm (0.59–0.98 in)/year
Features	North 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

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.