Eurasian plate

Scheme of the Eurasian plate in the middle of other lithospheric plates

The bridge on the Icelandic peninsula Reykjanesskagi connects the North American and Eurasian plates

The Eurasian plate is one of the largest continental plates (tectonic plate) on earth. Its western continental part is also known as the European plate , especially in connection with the formation of the Alps . The Eurasian plate forms almost the entire Eurasian major continent , with the exception of the Indian subcontinent , which is part of the Indian plate , and the Far East of Russia , which is part of the North American plate . The continental plate also carries Indonesia , the Philippines , southern Japan and part of Iceland . The western half of the earth's oceanic crust is covered by the North Atlantic and large parts of the Arctic Ocean .

The Eurasian Plate is bordered - clockwise from the west - by the North American Plate, the Philippine Plate , the Australian Plate , the Indian Plate, the Arabian Plate , the Anatolian Plate , the Hellenic Plate , the Apulian Plate and the African Plate . There may be some other smaller plates in the transition zones to the large neighboring plates ( microplates such as the Adriatic plate ); its existence has not yet been clarified beyond doubt.

The mid-Atlantic ridge separates the Eurasian plate from the North American plate and separates the two continents there by around 2 cm per year.

See also

• List of tectonic plates

Web links

• Geology and Geography of Tibet and Western China (English)

Single receipts

1. ↑ Michael Heinert, James Perlt: Iceland - island on the continental border between Eurasia and North America (PDF; 555 kB) Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy , Technical University of Braunschweig . Retrieved April 22, 2014.