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The Pacific is ringed by many volcanoes and oceanic trenches. The Pacific Ocean evolved in the Mesozoic from the Panthalassic Ocean, which had formed when Rodinia rifted apart around 750 Ma. The first ocean floor which is part of the current Pacific plate began 160 Ma to the west of the central Pacific and subsequently developed into the ...
The magnitude of a megathrust earthquake is proportional to length of the rupture along the fault. The Cascadia subduction zone, which forms the boundary between the Juan de Fuca and North American plates, is a very long sloping fault that stretches from mid-Vancouver Island to Northern California. [18]
A number of microplates exist between the two major plates and host various back-arc structures of which the largest are the volcanic Tonga–Kermadec Ridge, the actively spreading Lau Basin and the Havre Trough. At the southern end there is a transition to the transform faults of the South Island of New Zealand.
: Active volcanoes Global map of subduction zones, with subducted slabs contoured by depth Diagram of the geological process of subduction. The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) [note 1] is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes.
Map of the Chile Rise and its fracture zones in Nazca and the Antarctic plates Active Pacific Ocean fracture zones are perpendicular to the mid-ocean ridges (black lines) in orange shaded region. Since the map was prepared ages not shown of south-west Pacific and north Pacific Ocean floors may have been characterised.
The Pacific Ring of Fire runs parallel to the line and is the world's foremost belt of explosive volcanism. The term andesite line predates the geologic understanding of plate tectonics . The term was first used in 1912 by New Zealand geologist Patrick Marshall to describe the distinct structural and volcanologic boundary extending from east of ...
Tectonic map of Alaska and northwestern Canada showing main faults and historic earthquakes. The Queen Charlotte Fault is an active transform fault that marks the boundary of the North American plate and the Pacific plate. [1] [2] It is Canada's right-lateral strike-slip equivalent to the San Andreas Fault to the south in California. [3]
The 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) [4] long Macquarie fault zone (also known as the Macquarie Ridge, its gazetted name since 2015, [7] the Macquarie Ridge complex or historically as the Macquarie Fault) [Notes 1] is a major right lateral-moving transform fault along the seafloor of the south Pacific Ocean which runs from New Zealand southwestward towards the Macquarie triple junction.