Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 oceanic Nazca plate subducts beneath the continental South American plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. Just north of the Nazca plate, the oceanic Cocos plate subducts under the Caribbean plate and forms the Middle America Trench. Oceanic crust of the South American plate subducts under the Caribbean plate in the Lesser Antilles subduction zone.
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)
It is considered to be a separate tectonic plate to the neighboring South American Plate, and contains several oceanic islands of the South Pacific, which have been associated with both Oceania and South America. The Galápagos Islands and Malpelo Island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean are possessions of Ecuador and Colombia, respectively ...
The South American continent also includes various islands, most of which belong to countries on the continent. The Caribbean territories are grouped with North America. The South American nations that border the Caribbean Sea — Colombia and Venezuela —are also known as the Caribbean South America.
The first South American country to abolish slavery was Chile in 1823, Uruguay in 1830, Bolivia in 1831, Guyana in 1833, Colombia and Ecuador in 1851, Argentina in 1853, Peru and Venezuela in 1854, Suriname in 1863, Paraguay in 1869, and in 1888 Brazil was the last South American nation and the last country in western world to abolish slavery. [54]
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 .
Below is a list of countries and dependencies in South America by area. [1] Brazil is the largest country in South America while Suriname is the smallest. Panama is not regarded as a transcontinental country but the country is sometimes included in South America due to being part of Colombia prior to its secession in 1903.