The
Galapagos Triple Junction is a geological area in the eastern
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
several hundred miles west of the
Galapagos IslandsThe Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador...
where three tectonic plates - the
Cocos PlateThe 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....
, the
Nazca PlateThe 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
Pacific PlateThe Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean.The north-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge...
- meet. It is an unusual type of
triple junctionA triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction a boundary will be one of 3 types - a ridge, trench or transform fault and triple junctions can be described according to the types of plate margin that meet at them...
in which the three plates do not meet at a simple intersection. Instead, the junction includes two small microplates, the
Galapagos MicroplateThe Galapagos Microplate is a small tectonic plate off the west coast of South America near the Galapagos Islands. It differs from most other crustal plates in that it is rotating clockwise between three much larger crustal plates around it, the Nazca, Cocos and Pacific Plates...
and the Northern Galapagos Microplate, caught in the junction, and turning synchronously with respect to each other.
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The
Galapagos Triple Junction is a geological area in the eastern
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
several hundred miles west of the
Galapagos IslandsThe Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador...
where three tectonic plates - the
Cocos PlateThe 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....
, the
Nazca PlateThe 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
Pacific PlateThe Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean.The north-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge...
- meet. It is an unusual type of
triple junctionA triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction a boundary will be one of 3 types - a ridge, trench or transform fault and triple junctions can be described according to the types of plate margin that meet at them...
in which the three plates do not meet at a simple intersection. Instead, the junction includes two small microplates, the
Galapagos MicroplateThe Galapagos Microplate is a small tectonic plate off the west coast of South America near the Galapagos Islands. It differs from most other crustal plates in that it is rotating clockwise between three much larger crustal plates around it, the Nazca, Cocos and Pacific Plates...
and the Northern Galapagos Microplate, caught in the junction, and turning synchronously with respect to each other.