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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 (carrying the city of Los Angeles) is moving northwards with respect to the North American plate. The Queen Charlotte Fault on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America The Motagua Fault , which crosses through Guatemala , is a transform boundary between the southern edge of the North American plate and the northern edge of ...
The Pacific plate is moving in a northwest direction, creating a divergence with the Gorda plate at a speed of 5 cm per year. [5] The Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates are moving east-northeast, subducting under the North American plate at a much slower rate of 2.5 to 3 cm per year. [6]
Plate motion based on Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite data from NASA JPL. Each red dot is a measuring point and vectors show direction and magnitude of motion. Tectonic plates are able to move because of the relative density of oceanic lithosphere and the relative weakness of the asthenosphere.
This region can be characterized by transform fault movement, the San Andreas also by transform strike slip movement, and the Cascadia subduction zone by a convergent plate boundary subduction movement. The Gorda plate is subducting, towards N50ºE, under the North American plate at 2.5–3 cm/yr, and is simultaneously converging obliquely ...
Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in which electric power is delivered to businesses and residences, and it is the form of electrical energy ...
Slightly clockwise and northward movement of the North American Plate was bringing the area into a dryer climatic belt. The direction of cross-bedding in Glen Canyon Group sand dunes suggests that prevailing winds from the north transported the sand into the region. [3]
Beneath the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a dense oceanic plate sinks beneath the North American Plate; a process known as subduction. As the oceanic slab sinks deep into the Earth's interior beneath the continental plate, high temperatures and pressures allow water molecules locked in the minerals of solid rock to escape. The supercritical water rises ...