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At first, the hot, faulted edge of the continent was high and buoyant relative to the new ocean basin. As the edge of North America moved away from the hot rift zone, it began to cool and subside beneath the new Atlantic Ocean. This once-active divergent plate boundary became the passive, trailing edge of westward moving North America.
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)
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).
Fault name Length [km] Location Sense of movement Time of movement Associated earthquakes Sources Aedipsos-Kandili Fault: 60: North Euboean Gulf, Greece: Normal: Active: Alaska–Aleutian megathrust: 4000: Kamchatka, Russia to Gulf of Alaska: Subduction zone: Active: 1964 Prince William Sound (M9.2), 1965 Rat Islands (M8.7), 1957 Andreanof ...
Some use the term "transform fault" to describe the seismically and tectonically active portion of a fracture zone after John Tuzo Wilson's concepts first developed with respect to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. [2] The term fracture zone has a distinct geological meaning, but it is also used more loosely in the naming of some oceanic features.
The New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ), sometimes called the New Madrid fault line (or fault zone or fault system), is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intraplate earthquakes (earthquakes within a tectonic plate) in the Southern and Midwestern United States, stretching to the southwest from New Madrid, Missouri.
The accommodation of this plate configuration results in a transform boundary along the Mendocino fracture zone, and a divergent boundary at the Gorda Ridge. [2] [3] This area is tectonically active historically and today. The Cascadia subduction zone is capable of producing megathrust earthquakes on the order of MW 9.0.
The regional geology of North America usually encompasses the geographic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, the continental United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. [1] The parts of the North American Plate that are not occupied by North American countries are usually not discussed as part of the regional geology.