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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]
Here three tectonic plates meet: the South American plate, the Nazca plate and the Antarctic plate. This triple junction is unusual in that it consists of a mid-oceanic ridge, the Chile Rise, being subducted under the South American plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. The Chile triple junction is the boundary between the Chilean Rise and the ...
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. [10]
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.
[20] [21] Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate. South America is home to several superlatives, including the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, Angel Falls in Venezuela; the highest single-drop waterfall Kaieteur Falls in Guyana; the largest river by volume, the Amazon River; the longest mountain range ...