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Caroline plate – Minor oceanic tectonic plate north of New Guinea – 1,700,000 km 2 (660,000 sq mi) Cocos plate – Young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America – 2,900,000 km 2 (1,100,000 sq mi) Indian plate – Minor plate that separated from Gondwana – 11,900,000 km 2 (4,600,000 sq mi)
Earth's lithosphere, the rigid outer shell of the planet including the crust and upper mantle, is fractured into seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates or "platelets". Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary (or fault): convergent, divergent, or transform.
Earth's lithosphere, the rigid outer shell of the planet including the crust and upper mantle, is fractured into seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates or "platelets". Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary (or fault): convergent, divergent, or transform ...
Convergent boundaries are areas where plates move toward each other and collide. These are also known as compressional or destructive boundaries. Obduction zones occurs when the continental plate is pushed under the oceanic plate, but this is unusual as the relative densities of the tectonic plates favours subduction of the oceanic plate. This ...
The tectonic plates of the lithosphere on Earth Earth cutaway from center to surface, the lithosphere comprising the crust and lithospheric mantle (detail not to scale). A lithosphere (from Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos) 'rocky' and σφαίρα (sphaíra) 'sphere') is the rigid, [1] outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite.
The Rivera plate, north of the Cocos plate, is thought to have separated from the Cocos plate 5–10 million years ago. The boundary between the two plates appears to lack a definite transform fault, yet they are regarded as distinct. After its separation from the Cocos plate, the Rivera plate started acting as an independent microplate. [2]
The Capricorn plate is a proposed [clarification needed] minor tectonic plate lying beneath the Indian Ocean basin in the southern and eastern hemispheres. The original theory of plate tectonics , as accepted by the scientific community in the 1960s, assumed fully rigid plates and relatively narrow, distinct plate boundaries.
The New Hebrides plate, sometimes called the Neo-Hebridean plate, is a minor tectonic plate (just larger than a microplate) located in the Pacific Ocean. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] While most of it is submerged as the sea bottom of the North Fiji Basin , the island country of Vanuatu , with multiple arc volcanoes , is on the western edge of the plate.