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The Pacific plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million km 2 (40 million sq mi), it is the largest tectonic plate. [ 2 ]
The East Pacific Rise near Easter Island is the fastest spreading mid-ocean ridge, with a spreading rate of over 15 cm/yr. [2] The Pacific plate moves generally towards the northwest at between 7 and 11 cm/yr while the Juan De Fuca plate has an east-northeasterly movement of some 4 cm/yr. [3]
The Pacific plate is moving the fastest at 95 mm/yr NE, then the Cocos plate moving relatively N-NW 67 mm/yr, and 40 mm/yr E –NE for the Nazca plate. [2] Differing border velocities that detect the rate of spreading as well as the lack of/slowing of spreading are also considered as well.
The Gorda plate is subducting, towards N50ºE, under the North American plate at 2.5–3 cm/yr, and is simultaneously converging obliquely against the Pacific plate at a rate of 5 cm/yr in the direction N115ºE.
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 km 2 (29 million sq mi), it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific plate (which borders the plate to the west).
Here the motion of the Pacific and North American Plates is strike-slip, the Pacific Plate moves northwest at a much faster rate in comparison to the North American Plate. [47] The San Andreas Fault is a dextral continental transform; it has a NW-SE trend, extending for 1300 km to a depth of up to 25 km. [47]
The eastern collision with the Pacific plate has increasing displacement rates towards the north from a low of less than 0.2 cm (0.079 in) per year at the southern end of the Macquarie Fault Zone, [6] where there is the major plate triple junction with the Pacific and Antarctic plates. Due to vector complexities at the north eastern end of this ...
Today, the eastern boundary of the Tonga plate is one of the fastest subduction zones, with a rate up to 24 cm/year (9.4 in/year). [1] The trench formed between the Tonga–Kermadec and Pacific plates is also home to the second deepest trench in the world, at about 10,800 m, [2] as well as the longest chain of submerged volcanoes. [3]