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The South American plate is a major tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America as well as a sizable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the African plate, with which it forms the southern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The Nazca plate or Nasca plate, [2] named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction , along the Peru–Chile Trench , of the Nazca plate under the South American plate is largely responsible for the Andean orogeny .
Scotia plate – Minor oceanic tectonic plate between the Antarctic and South American plates – 1,600,000 km 2 (620,000 sq mi) Somali plate – Minor tectonic plate including the east coast of Africa and the adjoining seabed – 16,700,000 km 2 (6,400,000 sq mi)
Map showing the location of Nazca Ridge off the west coast of Peru. The Nazca Ridge is a submarine ridge, located on the Nazca plate off the west coast of South America.This plate and ridge are currently subducting under the South American plate at a convergent boundary known as the Peru-Chile Trench at approximately 7.7 cm (3.0 in) per year. [1]
The oceanic Nazca tectonic plate is subducting at a rate of 10.3 cm/year (4.1 in/year) beneath the continental part of the South American tectonic plate; this process is responsible for volcanic activity and the uplift of the Andes mountains and of the Altiplano plateau. The subduction is oblique, leading to strike-slip faulting.
The Andes range has many active volcanoes distributed in four volcanic zones separated by areas of inactivity. The Andean volcanism is a result of the subduction of the Nazca Plate and Antarctic Plate underneath the South American Plate. The belt is subdivided into four main volcanic zones that are separated from each other by volcanic gaps.
The trench is also a part of the Chile triple junction, an unusual junction that consists of a mid-oceanic ridge and the Chile Rise being subducted under the South American plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. Two seamount ridges within the Nazca plate enter the subduction zone along this trench: the Nazca Ridge and the Juan Fernández Ridge.
Plate tectonics within Colombia.. Geology of Colombia refers to the geological composition of the Republic of Colombia that determines its geography.Most of the emerged territory of Colombia covers vast areas within the South American Plate, whereas much submerged territory lies within the Caribbean Plate and the Nazca Plate.