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The Caribbean plate is moving eastward about 22 millimetres (0.87 in) per year in relation to the South American plate. [6] [7] In Venezuela, much of the movement between the Caribbean plate and the South American plate occurs along the faults of Boconó, El Pilar, and San Sebastián. [5] The western portion of the plate is occupied by Central ...
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 causes the oceanic plate to buckle and usually results in a new mid-ocean ridge forming and turning the obduction into subduction. [citation needed]
Divergence between the North American and South American Plates began to create oceanic crust off Colombia's Pacific coast by the end of the Jurassic (150 Ma). This divergence, which continued until at least 66 Ma, first resulted in a "proto-Caribbean spreading ridge" between these plates flanked by a perpendicular transform zone on its Pacific side.
The country is located where three lithospheric plates—Nazca, Caribbean, and South American—converge, and their movement produces different types of geologic faults. [1] Almost all of the country's many earthquakes in recent centuries have occurred in the mountainous and coastal regions. [1]
Bathymetry of the northeast corner of the Caribbean Plate showing the major faults and plate boundaries; view looking south-west. The main bathymetric features of this area include: the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc; the old inactive volcanic arc of the Greater Antilles (Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola); the Muertos Trough; and the Puerto Rico Trench formed at the plate boundary ...
Spreading at the Cayman Trough may explain north-plunging late folds, due to eastward movement of the Caribbean plate. The formation of the Cayman Trough produced the last significant tectonic feature on the islands after 39 million years ago, with sinistral strike-slip faults.
Caribbean plate – A mostly oceanic tectonic plate including part of Central America and the Caribbean Sea – 3,300,000 km 2 (1,300,000 sq mi) Caroline plate – Minor oceanic tectonic plate north of New Guinea – 1,700,000 km 2 (660,000 sq mi)
Some researchers believe that the EPGFZ and the Septentrional-Orient fault zone bound a microplate, dubbed the Gonâve microplate, a 190,000 km 2 (73,000 sq mi) area of the northern Caribbean plate that is in the process of shearing off the Caribbean plate and accreting to the North America plate. [3]