List of tectonic plates

The list of tectonic plates includes proven and currently suspected tectonic plates of the earth. Plates that demonstrably no longer exist are not listed.

Birds plate model

The following overview contains the tectonic plates postulated by geologist and geophysicist Peter Bird in 2003. Most of the plates are also accepted by other scientists.

Map of the tectonic plates according to Bird 2003. The arrows indicate the direction of movement of the plate and its speed in millimeters per year.

Surname	Area in steradian	location
African plate ( Nubian plate )	1.44065	African continent west of the East African rift
Aegean plate	0.00793	Peloponnese , Aegean Islands , West Coast of Anatolia
Altiplano plate	0.02050	Southern Peru , Bolivia , Northern Chile
Amur plate	0.13066	Southeast Russia east of Lake Baikal , Manchuria , Korea , western main islands of Japan
Anatolian plate	0.01418	Asian part of Turkey except north and west coast, northern part of Cyprus
Antarctic plate	1.43268	entire continent of Antarctica , South Pacific , largest part of the Southern Ocean
Arabic plate	0.12082	Orient south of Taurus and Zagros , Arabian Peninsula
Australian plate	1.13294	Australia , parts of New Zealand , southern half of New Guinea , southern Indian Ocean to west of Sumatra
Balmoral Reef Plate	0.00481	northern part of Fiji
Bandase plate	0.01715	Southern half of Sulawesi , Banda Sea , Ambon ( Indonesia )
Bird's Head Plate	0.01295	Vogelkop , Halmahera ( Indonesia )
Burma plate	0.01270	Andaman and Nicobar Islands , northern tip of Sumatra
Coconut platter	0.07223	Pacific off the coast of Central America , a descendant of the Farallon plate
Conway Reef Plate	0.00356	southern part of Fiji
Eurasian plate	1.19630	almost all of Eurasia , except Anatolia , the Orient , the Arabian Peninsula , India , Southeast Asia and Eastern Siberia
Futuna plate	0.00079	Pacific around Wallis and Futuna
Galapagos Plate	0.00036	Pacific , near the Galápagos Islands
Indian plate	0.30637	India , Sri Lanka , Northern Indian Ocean
Juan de Fuca platter	0.00632	Pacific off the coast of Oregon , Washington and British Columbia , a descendant of the Farallon Plate
Juan Fernandez plate	0.00241	Pacific south of Easter Island
Caribbean plate	0.07304	Honduras , El Salvador , Nicaragua , Antilles except Cuba
Caroline plate	0.03765	Palau , Western Carolines ( Micronesia )
Kermadec plate	0.01245	Eastern half of the North Island of New Zealand , Kermadec Islands
Manus plate	0.00020	Pacific south of Lavongai ( Papua New Guinea )
Maoke plate	0.00284	north-western part of New Guinea without the Vogelkop Peninsula
Mariana Plate	0.01037	Mariana Islands ( Western Pacific )
Moluccan plate	0.01030	Northern half of Sulawesis , Buru , Moluccan Sea ( Indonesia )
Nazca plate	0.39669	Pacific between Easter Island and South America , a descendant of the Farallon plate
New Hebrides Plate	0.01585	New Hebrides ( Southwest Pacific )
Niuafo'ou plate	0.00306	Pacific northwest of Tonga
North American plate	1.36559	North America including Mexico and Guatemala , Northeast Siberia , Cuba , western part of Iceland
North Andean Plate	0.02394	Colombia , Ecuador
North Bismarck Plate	0.00956	Bismarck Archipelago except New Britain
Okhotsk plate	0.07482	Kamchatka , Sakhalin , Kuril Islands , northern main islands of Japan
Okinawa plate	0.00802	Ryūkyū Islands , northern tip of Taiwan
Easter platter	0.00411	Pacific west of Easter Island
Panama plate	0.00674	Panama , Costa Rica
Pacific plate	2.57685	Pacific west of Easter Island
Philippine sea plate	0.13409	Philippine Sea , northern half of Luzon
Rivera plate	0.00249	Pacific off the coast of Jalisco ( Mexico )
Solomon's Plate	0.00317	Solomon Sea ( Western Pacific )
Sandwich panel	0.00454	Southern Ocean west of the South Sandwich Islands
Scotia plate	0.04190	Southern Ocean from Drake Street to the west of the South Sandwich Islands
Shetland plate (hypothetical)	0.00178	South Shetland Islands ( Southern Ocean )
Somali plate	0.47192	Africa east of the East African Rift , Madagascar , western Indian Ocean
South American plate	1.03045	South America except Colombia , Ecuador , southern Peru , Bolivia , northern Chile
Südbismarckplatte	0.00762	New Britain and the coastal strip of New Guinea to the west of it
Sunda plate	0.21967	Sumatra , Borneo , Java , Bali , Sumbawa , Southeast Asia
Timor plate	0.00870	Flores , Sumba , Timor ( Indonesia , East Timor )
Tonga plate	0.00625	Tonga
Woodlark plate	0.01116	central part of New Guinea
Yangts plate	0.05425	Southeast China

More plates

• The southern tip of the Juan de Fuca plate is often cut off as a separate plate. This then bears the name Gordaplatte . The northern tip of the Juan de Fuca plate is partially cut off as an Explorer plate .
• Part of the Eurasian plate is called the Apulian plate , and part of it is called the Adriatic plate . The Adriatic Plate comprises the northeastern part of Italy as well as the Adriatic Sea and parts of the Alps and the Dinaric Mountains. The Apulian plate also includes southern Italy and the southern Adriatic, as well as parts of Sicily.
• In the Tibetan highlands south of the Tarim Basin , a microplate (" Tibetan plate ") is believed to be pushed over the Eurasian plate by the advancing Indian plate, pushing it downwards.
• A small part of the Kula Plate, which is almost completely subducted under the North American Plate, is still on the surface. This roughly triangular fragment is located between 168 ° and 171.5 ° East between the Aleutian Trench and the Stalemate Ridge .
• The fracture zone between the Nubian and Somali Plateau along the East African Rift Valley contains three microplates: the Victoria Plateau around Lake Victoria , which is surrounded by the two main rift valleys ; the rovuma plate in north-east Mozambique and south Tanzania ; as well as the Lwandle plate , which, in addition to southern Madagascar , essentially includes oceanic crust southwest of this island.
• In the Caribbean , from Jamaica to the Virgin Islands, four small microplates extend between the North American and Caribbean plates: the South Jamaica microplate , the Gônave microplate , the North Hispaniola microplate, and the Puerto Rico Virgin Islands microplate .

Sources and further information

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p} Peter Bird: An updated digital model of plate boundaries. In: G³ - Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. An electronic journal of the earth sciences. Volume 4, No. 3, March 14, 2003. AGU ™ Publications and the Geochemical Society published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISSN  1525-2027 , accessed on January 18, 2017 (PDF; 16.2 MB, English) .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} C. DeMets, RG Gordon, DF Argus and S. Stein (1994) Effect of recent revisions to the geomagnetic reversal time scale on estimate of current plate motions. in: Geophysical Research Letters 21 , pages 2191-4.
3. ↑ ^{a b} S. McClusky, S. et al. (2000) Global Positioning System constraints on plate kinematics and dynamics in the eastern Mediterranean and Caucasus. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 105 , pages 5695-719.
4. ^ S. Lamb (2000) Active deformation in the Bolivian Andes, South America. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 105 , pages 25,627-53.
5. ↑ ^{a b} K. Heki, S. Miyazaki, H. Takahashi, M. Kasahara, F. Kimata, S. Miura, NF Vasilenko, A. Ivaschenko and K.-D. An (1999) The Amurian plate motion and current plate kinematics in eastern Asia. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 104 , pages 29.147-55.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} C. Rangin, X. Le Pichon, S. Mazzotti, M. Pubellier, N. Chamot-Rooke, M. Aurelio, A. Walpersdorf and R. Quebral (1999) Plate convergence measured by GPS across the Sundaland / Philippine Sea plate deformed boundary: The Philippines and eastern Indonesia. in: Geophysical Journal International 139 , pages 296-316.
7. ↑ MT Halbouty et al. (Ed.) (1986) Circum-Pacific Map Project: Plate-Tectonic Map of the Circum-Pacific Region. 5 sheets at 1: 10,000,000 and 1 sheet at 1: 20,000,000. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa.
8. ↑ P. Lonsdale (1988) Structural pattern of the Galapagos microplate and evolution of the Galapagos triple junctions. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 93 , pages 13,551-74.
9. ^ DS Wilson (1988) Tectonic history of the Juan de Fuca Ridge over the last 40 million years. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 93 , pages 11.863-76.
10. ↑ S. Anderson-Fontana, JF Engeln, P. Lundgren, RL Larson and S. Stein (1986) Tectonics and evolution of the Juan Fernandez microplate at the Pacific-Nazca-Antarctic plate junction. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 91 , pages 2005-18.
11. ↑ JC Weber, TH Dixon, C. DeMets, WB Ambeh, P. Jansma, G. Mattioli, J. Saleh, G. Sella, R. Bilham and O. Perez (2001) GPS estimate of relative motion between the Caribbean and South American plates, and geologic implications for Trinidad and Venezuela. in Geology 29 , pages 75-8.
12. ↑ ^{a b} T. Seno, S. Stein and AE Gripp (1993) A model for the motion of the Philippine Sea plate consistent with NUVEL-1 and geological data. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 98 , pages 17,941-8.
13. ↑ F. Martinez and B. Taylor (1996) Fast backarc spreading, rifting, and microplate rotation, between transform faults in the Manus Basin, Bismarck Sea. in: Marine Geophysical Researches 18 , 203-24.
14. ↑ ^{a b} K. E. Zellmer and B. Taylor (2001) A three-plate kinematic model for Lau Basin opening. in: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 2 , 2000GC000106.
15. ^ R. Trenkamp, ​​JN Kellogg and JT Freymueller (1996) Transect of Nazca-South America plate boundary in Ecuador and Columbia: 8 years of CASA GPS results (abstract). in: Eos Trans. AGU, 77 (46), Fall Meeting Supplement, F142.
16. ↑ ^{a b} P. Tregoning et al. (1998) Estimation of current plate motions in Papua New Guinea from Global Positioning System observations. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 103 , pages 12.181-203.
17. ^ DB Cook, K. Fujita and CA McMullen (1986) Present-day plate interactions in northeast Asia; North America, Eurasian, and Okhotsk plates. in: Journal of Geodynamics 6 , pages 33-51.
18. ^ JF Engeln and S. Stein (1984) Tectonics of the Easter plate. in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters 68 , pages 259-70.
19. ↑ JN Kellogg, V. Vega, TC Stallings and CLV Aiken (1995) Tectonic development of Panama, Costa Rica, and the Columbian Andes: Constraints from Global Positioning System geodetic studies and gravity. in: P. Mann (Ed.) Geologic and Tectonic Development of the Caribbean Plate Boundary in Southern Central America. Geological Society of America Special Paper 295, pages 75-86.
20. ↑ C. DeMets and S. Traylen (2000) motion of the Rivera plate since 10 Ma relative to the Pacific and North American plates and the mantle. in: Tectonophyics 318 , pages 119-59.
21. ↑ ^{a b} A. M. Pelayo and DA Wiens (1989) Seismotectonics and relative plate motions in the Scotia Sea region. in: Journal of Geophysical Research 94 , pages 7293-320.
22. ↑ D. Chu and RG Gordon (1999) Evidence for motion between Nubia and Somalia along the Southwest Indian ridge. in: Nature 398 , pages 64-7.
23. ↑ P. Tregoning, RJ Jackson, H. McQueen, K. Lambeck, C. Stevens, RP Little, R. Curley and R. Rosa (1999) Motion of the South Bismarck plate, Papua New Guinea. in: Geophysical Research Letters 26 , pages 3517-20.
24. ^ Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. U.S. Geological Survey , accessed June 24, 2020 . 
25. ↑ The Cascade Episode | Burke Museum. Retrieved June 24, 2020 . 
26. ↑ Information from the University of Lausanne ( Memento from May 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
27. ↑ New tectonic plate discovered under Tibet. ( Memento from November 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: pressemitteilungen-online.de . November 1, 2011.
28. ↑ Article on thepublicmedia.de ( Memento from February 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
29. ↑ Message from the Helmholtz Foundation (English)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
30. ^ Peter Lonsdale: Paleogene history of the Kula plate: Offshore evidence and onshore implications. ( February 18, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive ) In: Geological Society of America Bulletin , 1988, pp. 733-754. (PDF; 3.58 MB).
31. ↑ S. Stamps et al. (2008) A kinematic model for the East African Rift. In: Geophysical Research Letters 35 (5).
32. ↑ B. Benford, C. Demets, E. Calais: GPS estimates of microplate motions, northern Caribbean: Evidence for a Hispaniola microplate and implications for earthquake hazard. In: Geophysical Journal International. Volume 191 (2), 2012, pp. 481-490, DOI: 10.1111 / j.1365-246X.2012.05662.x .