Pacific plate

Pacific plate
The Pacific plate
TypeMajor
Approximate area103,300,000 km2 (39,900,000 sq mi)[1]
Movement1north-west
Speed156–102 mm (2.2–4.0 in)/year
FeaturesBaja California Peninsula, Southern California, Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, Solomon Islands archipelago, Southeast Alaska, Pacific Ocean
1Relative to the African plate
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The Pacific plate and other principal plates of Earth's lithosphere

The Pacific plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million km2 (40 million sq mi), it is the largest tectonic plate.[2]

The plate first came into existence as a microplate 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Izanagi plates. The Pacific plate subsequently grew to where it underlies most of the Pacific Ocean basin. This reduced the Farallon plate to a few remnants along the west coast of the Americas and the Phoenix plate to a small remnant near the Drake Passage, and destroyed the Izanagi plate by subduction under Asia.

The Pacific plate contains an interior hot spot forming the Hawaiian Islands.[3]

  1. ^ "Here are the Sizes of Tectonic or Lithospheric Plates". Archived from the original on 2016-06-05. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  2. ^ "SFT and the Earth's Tectonic Plates". Los Alamos National Laboratory. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference fmb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).