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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).
The Pacific plate, to the west of the fault, is moving in a northwest direction while the North American plate to the east is moving toward the southwest, but relatively southeast under the influence of plate tectonics. The rate of slippage averages about 33 to 37 millimeters (1.3 to 1.5 in) a year across California. [10]
The regions that are not geographically North American but reside on the North American Plate include parts of Siberia (see the Geology of Russia), [2] and Iceland, and Bermuda. A discussion of North American geology can also include other continental plates including the Cocos Plats and Juan de Fuca Plate being subducted beneath western North ...
North American plate – Large tectonic plate including most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia – 75,900,000 km 2 (29,300,000 sq mi) Pacific plate – Oceanic tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean – 103,300,000 km 2 (39,900,000 sq mi)
The Yellowstone hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the United States responsible for large scale volcanism in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming, formed as the North American tectonic plate moved over it. It formed the eastern Snake River Plain through a succession of caldera-forming eruptions.
The Pacific plate changes its direction of motion from north to northwest. 35 Ma Eocene Rio Grande Rift begins to form. 20 Ma Miocene: San Andreas Fault comes into being as the North American plate begins splitting the Farallon plate in two. 17 Ma - 14 Ma Miocene: Columbia River Basalt Group forms. 8 Ma Miocene
To the northwest of the triple junction the Pacific plate currently has 15 degrees of oblique convergence, passing under the North American plate along the Queen Charlotte transform fault zone. [3] The Explorer plate is a small chunk of the Juan de Fuca plate that broke away from the Juan de Fuca plate about 3.5 Ma and has moved much slower ...
This rift marks the actual boundary between adjacent tectonic plates, where magma from the mantle reaches the seafloor, erupting as lava and producing new crustal material for the plates. Before 2002 Explorer Ridge was the least explored of the northeast Pacific spreading centers, even though it was known to have robust hydrothermal activity ...