isacks microplate guaymas aseismic nazca martir taitao farallon 53mm chapala galapagos intraplate barckhausen ballenas subducted polochic sangihe 15,600,000 amurian niuafo'ou pelso delfin subduct subduction pescadero meschede maoke motagua gonâve alarcon
convergence rate between nazca plate and south american plate
Nazca Plate - wikipedia Nazca Plate Jump to : navigation , search <Th_colspan="2"> Nazca Plate <Td_colspan="2"> Type Minor Approximate area 15,600,000 km Movement north - east Speed 40 - 53mm / year Features Pacific Ocean <Td_colspan="2"> Relative to the African Plate The Nazca Plate , 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 . The Nazca Plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific Plate and to the south by the Antarctic Plate through the East Pacific Rise and the Chile Rise respectively . The movement of the Nazca Plate over several hotspots has created some volcanic islands as well as east - west running seamount chains that subduct under South America . Nazca is a relatively young plate both in terms of the age of its rocks and its existence as an independent plate having been formed from the break - up of the Farallon Plate about 23 million years ago . The oldest rocks of the plate are about 50 million years old . Contents ( hide ) 1 Boundaries 1.1 East Pacific and Chile Rise 1.2 Peru -- Chile Trench 2 Intraplate features 2.1 Hotspots 2.2 Aseismic ridges 2.3 Fracture zones 3 Plate motion 4 Geologic history 5 See also 6 References Boundaries ( edit ) East Pacific and Chile Rise ( edit ) Main articles : East Pacific Rise and Chile Rise A triple junction , the Chile Triple Junction , occurs on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean off Taitao and Tres Montes Peninsula at the southern coast of Chile . Here three tectonic plates meet : the Nazca Plate , the South American Plate , and the Antarctic Plate . Peru -- Chile Trench ( edit ) See also : Peru -- Chile Trench The eastern margin is a convergent boundary subduction zone under the South American Plate and the Andes Mountains , forming the Peru -- Chile Trench . The southern side is a divergent boundary with the Antarctic Plate , the Chile Rise , where seafloor spreading permits magma to rise . The western side is a divergent boundary with the Pacific Plate , forming the East Pacific Rise . The northern side is a divergent boundary with the Cocos Plate , the Galapagos Rise . The subduction of the Nazca plate under southern Chile has a history of producing massive earthquakes , including the largest ever recorded on earth , the moment magnitude 9.5 1960 Valdivia earthquake . Intraplate features ( edit ) Hotspots ( edit ) Main articles : Easter hotspot , Juan Fernández hotspot , and Galápagos hotspot A second triple junction occurs at the northwest corner of the plate where the Nazca , Cocos , and Pacific Plates all join off the coast of Colombia . Yet another triple junction occurs at the southwest corner at the intersection of the Nazca , Pacific , and Antarctic Plates off the coast of southern Chile . At each of these triple junctions an anomalous microplate exists , the Galapagos Microplate at the northern junction and the Juan Fernandez Microplate at the southern junction . The Easter Island Microplate is a third microplate that is located just north of the Juan Fernandez Microplate and lies just west of Easter Island . Aseismic ridges ( edit ) Main articles : Nazca Ridge , Juan Fernández Ridge , and Carnegie Ridge The Carnegie Ridge is a 1,350 - km - long and up to 300 - km - wide feature on the ocean floor of the northern Nazca Plate that includes the Galápagos archipelago at its western end . It is being subducted under South America with the rest of the Nazca Plate . Fracture zones ( edit ) The Darwin Gap is the area between the Nazca Plate and the coast of Chile , where Charles Darwin experienced the earthquake of 1835 . It is expected that this area will be the epicenter of a major quake in the near future . Plate motion ( edit ) The absolute motion of the Nazca Plate has been calibrated at 3.7 cm / yr east motion ( 88 ° ) , one of the fastest absolute motions of any tectonic plate . The subducting Nazca Plate , which exhibits unusual flat - slab subduction , is tearing as well as deforming as it is subducted ( Barzangi and Isacks ) . The subduction has formed , and continues to form , the volcanic Andes Mountain Range . Deformation of the Nazca Plate even affects the geography of Bolivia , far to the east ( Tinker et al . ) . The 1994 Bolivia earthquake occurred on the Nazca Plate ; this had a magnitude of 8.2 M w ( \ displaystyle M_ ( w ) ) , which at that time was the strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake occurring deeper than 300 km . Aside from the Juan Fernández Islands , this area has very few other islands that are affected by the earthquakes that are a result of complicated movements at these junctions . Geologic history ( edit ) See also : Farallon Plate The precursor of both the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate ( to its north ) was the Farallon Plate , which split in the late Oligocene , about 22.8 Mya , a date arrived at by interpreting magnetic anomalies . Subduction under the South American continent began about 140 Mya , although the formation of the high parts of the Central Andes and the Bolivian orocline did not occur until 45 Mya . It has been suggested that the mountains were forced up by the subduction of the older and heavier parts of the plate , which sank more quickly into the mantle . See also ( edit ) 2010 Chile earthquake Caribbean Plate References ( edit ) Jump up ^ `` Sizes of Tectonic or Lithospheric Plates '' . About.com Geology . Retrieved 4 January 2016 . Jump up ^ Dutch , Steven . `` Sea Floor Spreading in the Pacific '' . Jump up ^ Kelly McGuire ( 8 April 2004 ) . `` Tectonics of South America : Chile Triple Junction '' ( PDF ) . Retrieved 27 February 2016 . Jump up ^ Darwin Gap quake will shake Chile again ( 1 ) , New Scientist , 30 Jan 2011 , accessed 8 Feb 2011 . Jump up ^ `` Mountains on a plate form the Andes '' ( Issue No : 214 ) . University World News . 25 March 2012 . Retrieved 8 February 2016 . Bibliography Extreme Science site : `` A Lesson in Plate tectonics '' The basics explained . Galapagos rise junction ( map ) Juan Fernandez and Easter microplate ( map ) Muawia Barazangi and Bryan L. Isacks , `` Spatial distribution of earthquakes and subduction of the Nazca plate beneath South America '' in Geology Vol. 4 , No. 11 , pp. 686 -- 692 . Abstract Mark Andrew Tinker , Terry C. Wallace , Susan L. Beck , Stephen Myers , and Andrew Papanikolas , `` Geometry and state of stress of the Nazca plate beneath Bolivia and its implication for the evolution of the Bolivian orocline '' in Geology 24 ( 5 ) , pp. 387 -- 390 Abstract Cahill , T. and B. Isacks ( 1992 ) . `` Seismicity and shape of the subducted Nazca plate . '' Journal Geophysical Research 97 ( 12 ) James , D. ( 1978 ) . `` Subduction of the Nazca plate beneath Central Peru . '' Geology 6 ( 3 ) pp 174 -- 178 Martin Meschede and Udo Barckhausen , `` Plate tectonic evolution of the Cocos - Nazca spreading center '' <Th_colspan="3"> Tectonic plates Major African Indo - Australian Plate Antarctic Eurasian North American Pacific South American Minor Amurian Arabian Caribbean Caroline Cocos Juan de Fuca Nazca Okhotsk Philippine Scotia Somali Yangtze Other Adriatic Aegean Sea Anatolian Australian Balmoral Reef Banda Sea Bird 's Head Burma Capricorn Conway Reef Easter Explorer Falklands Futuna Galapagos Gonâve Gorda Greenland Halmahera Iberian Indian Iranian Juan Fernández Kerguelen Kermadec Madagascar Manus Maoke Mariana Molucca Sea New Hebrides Niuafo'ou North Andes North Bismarck North Galapagos Nubian Okinawa Panama Pelso Philippine Mobile Belt Rivera Sangihe Seychelles Shetland Solomon Sea South Bismarck South Sandwich Sunda Timor Tisza Tonga Woodlark Historical Baltic Bellingshausen Charcot Cimmeria Farallon Insular Intermontane Izanagi Kula Lhasa Malvinas Moa Phoenix <Td_colspan="3"> List of tectonic plates <Th_colspan="2"> Tectonic plates of Central America ( Pacific Plate -- North American Plate -- Caribbean Plate Convergence Zone ) Large Cocos Plate Nazca Plate Small Rivera Plate Faults and rift zones Atl Fault Atoyac Fault Ballenas Fault Carmen Fault Cerro Prieto Fault Chapala Tula Fault Zone Donaji Fault Guaymas Fault Gulf of California Rift Zone Farallon Fault Imperial Fault Zone Oaxaca Fault Pedro Miguel Fault Pescadero Fault Rivera Transform Fault Polochic Fault - Motagua Fault San Lorenzo Fault Tamayo Fault Trenches and troughs Alarcon Basin Carmen Basin Consag Basin Delfin Basin Guaymas Basin Middle America Trench ( Acapulco / Guatemala ) San Pedro Martir Basin Tehuantepec Ridge Wagner Basin Other Rivera Triple Junction List of faults in Costa Rica List of seismic faults in Mexico Coordinates : 14 ° 49 ′ 44 '' S 74 ° 56 ′ 37 '' W ﻿ / ﻿ 14.82889 ° S 74.94361 ° W ﻿ / - 14.82889 ; - 74.94361 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazca_Plate&oldid=799126130 '' Categories : Tectonic plates Geology of Chile Natural history of South America Geology of the Pacific Ocean Talk Contents About Wikipedia Azərbaycanca Boarisch Català Čeština Deutsch Eesti Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Lietuvių Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Occitan Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 5 September 2017 , at 20 : 02 . 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