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The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic
Oceanic crust

Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's lithosphere that surfaces in the ocean basins. Oceanic crust is primarily composed of mafic rocks, or Sima ....
 tectonic plate
Tectonic Plate

#REDIRECT Plate tectonics...
 underlying Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
 and the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
 off the north coast of South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
.

Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders the North American Plate
North American Plate

The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia....
, the South American Plate
South American Plate

The South American Plate is a tectonic plate covering the continent of South America and extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.The easterly side is a divergent boundary with the African Plate forming the southern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....
, the Nazca Plate
Nazca 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....
 and the Cocos Plate
Cocos Plate

The Cocos Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides upon it....
.






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Tectonic Plates Caribbean
The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic
Oceanic crust

Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's lithosphere that surfaces in the ocean basins. Oceanic crust is primarily composed of mafic rocks, or Sima ....
 tectonic plate
Tectonic Plate

#REDIRECT Plate tectonics...
 underlying Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
 and the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
 off the north coast of South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
.

Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders the North American Plate
North American Plate

The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia....
, the South American Plate
South American Plate

The South American Plate is a tectonic plate covering the continent of South America and extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.The easterly side is a divergent boundary with the African Plate forming the southern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....
, the Nazca Plate
Nazca 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....
 and the Cocos Plate
Cocos Plate

The Cocos Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides upon it....
. These borders are regions of intense seismic
Seismology

Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of Linear elasticity#Elastic waves through the Earth. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic, atmospheric, and artificial processes ....
 activity, including frequent earthquake
Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph....
s, occasional tsunami
Tsunami

A is a series of ocean surface wave that is created when a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. The Japanese term is literally translated into " harbor wave."...
s, and volcanic
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
 eruptions.

Boundary types

The northern boundary with the North American plate is a transform or strike-slip boundary which runs from the border area of Belize
Belize

Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
, Guatemala
Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast....
 (Motagua Fault
Motagua Fault

The Motagua Fault is a major, active left lateral-moving transform fault which cuts across Guatemala. It forms part of the tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate....
), and Honduras
Honduras

Honduras is a democratic republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras ....
 in Central America, eastward through the Cayman trough on south of the southeast coast of Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
, and just north of Hispaniola
Hispaniola

Hispaniola is the second-largest and most populous island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east....
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
, and the Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are an archipelago, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles, where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean....
. Part of the Puerto Rico Trench
Puerto Rico Trench

The Puerto Rico Trench is an oceanic trench located on the boundary between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The trench is associated with a complex transition between the subduction zone to the south along the Lesser Antilles island arc and the major transform fault zone or plate boundary that extends west between Cuba and Hispanio...
, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
 (roughly 8,400 meters), lies along this border. The Puerto Rico trench is at a complex transition from the subduction boundary to the south and the transform boundary to the west.

The eastern boundary is a subduction zone, but since the boundary between the North and South American Plates in the Atlantic is as yet undefined, it is unclear which one, or possibly both, is descending under the Caribbean Plate. Subduction forms the volcanic islands of the Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies....
 island arc from the Virgin Islands in the north to the islands off the coast of Venezuela
Venezuela

Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
 in the south. This boundary contains seventeen active volcanoes, most notably Soufriere Hills on Montserrat
Montserrat

Montserrat is British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea....
, Mount Pelée
Mount Pelée

Mount Pel?e is a dormant volcano volcano on the northern tip of the France overseas department of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean....
 on Martinique
Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, having a land area of 1,128 km?. It is an overseas department of France. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia....
, La Grande Soufrière
La Grande Soufrière

La Grande Soufri?re, , is an active stratovolcano located on the France island of Basse-Terre, in Guadeloupe. It is the tallest mountain in the Lesser Antilles, and rises 1,467 m high....
 on Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an island group or archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at , with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres . It is an overseas department of France....
, Soufrière Saint Vincent
Soufrière (volcano)

La Soufri?re or Soufri?re Saint Vincent is a volcano on the island of Saint Vincent in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean.At 1,234m , it is the highest peak on Saint Vincent....
 on Saint Vincent
Saint Vincent (island)

Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean, the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada....
, and the submarine volcano Kick-'em-Jenny
Kick-'em-Jenny

Kick-'em-Jenny is an active submarine volcano on the Caribbean Sea floor 8 km north of the island of Grenada and about 8 km west of Ronde Island in the Grenadines....
 which lies about 10 km north of Grenada
Grenada

Grenada is an island nation that includes the southern Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines....
.

Caribbeanvolcanomap
Along the geologically complex southern boundary the Caribbean Plate interacts with the South American Plate forming Barbados
Barbados

Barbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent Continental Island-island nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. Located at roughly 13? North of the equator and 59? West of the prime meridian, it is considered a part of the Lesser Antilles....
, Trinidad
Trinidad

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and islands of Trinidad and Tobago which make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago....
 (both on the South American Plate) and Tobago
Tobago

Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean Sea, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada....
 (on the Caribbean Plate), and islands off the coast of Venezuela (including the Leeward Antilles
Leeward Antilles

The Leeward Antilles are a chain of islands in the Caribbean ? specifically, the southerly islands of the Lesser Antilles along the southeastern fringe of the Caribbean Sea, just north of the Venezuelan coast of the South American mainland....
) and Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. This boundary is in part the result of transform faulting along with thrust fault
Thrust fault

A thrust fault is a type of Geologic fault, or break in the Earth's crust with resulting movement of each side against the other, in which a lower stratigraphic position is pushed up and over another....
ing and some subduction. The rich Venezuelan petroleum
Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds....
 fields possibly result from this complex plate interaction.

The western portion of the plate is occupied by Central America. The Cocos Plate in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
 is subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate, just off the western coast of Central America. This subduction forms the volcanoes of Guatemala
Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast....
, El Salvador
El Salvador

El Salvador is the smallest country in the Americas and Central America by size, and the most densely populated nation in Central America. It borders on the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras....
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua

Nicaragua officially the Republic of Nicaragua , is a representative democracy republic. It is the largest state in Central America with an area of 130,000 km2, about the size of the state of New York....
, and Costa Rica
Costa Rica

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, also known as the Central America Volcanic Arc.

Cocos Caribbean

Origin

There are two contending theories as to the origin of the Caribbean Plate.

One holds that it is a large igneous province
Large igneous province

Large Igneous rock provinces were originally defined by Coffin and Eldholm as areas of Earth's crust that contain very large volumes of magmatic rocks erupted over extremely short geological time intervals of a few million years or less....
 that formed in the Pacific Ocean tens of millions of years ago. As the Atlantic ocean widened, North America and South America were pushed westward, separated for a time by oceanic crust. The Pacific Ocean floor subducted under this oceanic crust between the continents. The Caribbean Plate drifted into the same area, but as it was less dense (although thicker) than the surrounding oceanic crust, it did not subduct, but rather overrode the ocean floor, continuing to move eastward relative to North America and South America. With the formation of the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama

The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North America and South America....
 3 million years ago, it ultimately lost its connection to the Pacific.

A more recent theory asserts that the Caribbean Plate came into being from an Atlantic hotspot which no longer exists. This theory points to evidence of the absolute motion of the Caribbean Plate which indicates that it moves westward, not east, and that its apparent eastward motion is only relative to the motions of the North American Plate
North American Plate

The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia....
 and the South American Plate
South American Plate

The South American Plate is a tectonic plate covering the continent of South America and extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.The easterly side is a divergent boundary with the African Plate forming the southern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....
.

See also

  • List of tectonic plates
    List of tectonic plates

    This is a list of tectonic plates on Earth. Tectonic plates are pieces of the Earth's Crust and uppermost mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere....
  • Central America Volcanic Arc
  • Earthquakes in Guatemala
    Earthquakes in Guatemala

    Earthquakes and tremors are relatively frequent occurrences in Guatemala. The country lies in a major fault zone, known as the Motagua Fault and Chixoy-Polochic Fault fault complex, which cuts across Guatemala and forms the tectonic boundary between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate....


External links