Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
South America, Atlantic Ocean 1 Relative to the African plate 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 .
Map showing Earth's principal tectonic plates and their boundaries in detail. These plates comprise the bulk of the continents and the Pacific Ocean.For purposes of this list, a major plate is any plate with an area greater than 20 million km 2 (7.7 million sq mi)
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.
The Caribbean plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of South America. Roughly 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean plate borders the North American plate, the South American plate, the Nazca plate and the Cocos plate.
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.
The geography of South America contains many diverse regions and climates. Geographically, South America is generally considered a continent forming the southern portion of the landmass of the Americas, south and east of the Colombia–Panama border by most authorities, or south and east of the Panama Canal by some.
Prior to the collision of Patagonia, the nucleus of modern-day South America was contained within a portion of the southwest margin of Gondwana. This margin consisted of the ancient Rio de la Plata craton and a number of accreted terranes, whose boundaries have been discovered using paleomagnetic studies. [3]
Map of a north-south sea-parallel pattern of rock ages in western Colombia. This pattern is a result of the Andean orogeny. Tectonic blocks of continental crust that had separated from northwestern South America in the Jurassic re-joined the continent in the Late Cretaceous by colliding obliquely with it. [6]