Caribbean Plate
Caribbean Plate | |
---|---|
Type | Minor |
Approximate area | 3,300,000 km2[1] |
Movement1 | north-west |
Speed1 | 10-11mm/year |
Features | Central America, Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles Caribbean Sea |
1Relative to the African Plate |
The Caribbean Plate is a mostly
Roughly 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders the
Boundary types
The northern boundary with the North American Plate is a
The eastern boundary is a
Along the geologically complex southern boundary,[5] the Caribbean Plate interacts with the South American Plate forming Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago (all on the Caribbean Plate), and islands off the coast of Venezuela (including the Leeward Antilles) and Colombia. This boundary is in part the result of transform faulting, along with thrust faulting and some subduction. The rich Venezuelan petroleum fields possibly result from this complex plate interaction. The Caribbean Plate is moving eastward about 22 millimetres (0.87 in) per year in relation to the South American plate.[6][7] In Venezuela, much of the movement between the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate occurs along the faults of Boconó, El Pilar and San Sebastián.[5]
The western portion of the plate is occupied by Central America. The Cocos Plate in the Pacific Ocean is subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate, just off the western coast of Central America. This subduction forms the volcanoes of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, also known as the Central America Volcanic Arc.
Origin
The usual theory of the origin of the Caribbean Plate was confronted by a contrasting theory in 2002.
The mainstream theory holds that it is the
The more recent theory asserts that the Caribbean Plate came into being from an
First American land bridge
The Caribbean Plate began its eastward migration 80 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Cretaceous. This migration eventually resulted in a
58.5 to 56.5 Ma, during the
Great American Interchange
The
See also
- 2010 Haiti earthquake
- Central America Volcanic Arc
- Gonâve Microplate
- List of earthquakes in Guatemala
- List of earthquakes in Puerto Rico
- List of tectonic plates
- Panama Plate
References
- ^ "Sizes of Tectonic or Lithospheric Plates". About.com Geology. Archived from the original on 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
- ISSN 0972-0405.
- .
- hdl:10220/8653.
- ^ . Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^ Deiros D (2000) [Determination of Displacement Between Caribbean and South American Plates in Venezuela using Global Positioning System (GPS) data.] Geological Code of Venezuela. (in Spanish)
- ^ Pérez OJ, Bilham R, Bendick R, Hernández N, Hoyer M, Velandia J, Moncayo C y Kozuch M (2001) Relative velocity between the Caribbean and South America Plates from observations Within the Global Positioning System (GPS) in northern Venezuela.(in Spanish)
- ^ "Crustal structure across the Pacific margin of Nicaragua", Walther, C. H. E. et al, Geophysical Journal, Volume 141, Issue 3, pp. 759-777, (2000).
- ISBN 978-1-86239-288-5.
- ISBN 978-976-640-100-9.
- ^ .
- PMID 24312212.
- ISBN 978-0-521-78117-6.