Galapagos Triple Junction
Encyclopedia
The Galapagos Triple Junction is a geological area in the eastern Pacific Ocean
several hundred miles west of the Galapagos Islands
where three tectonic plates - the Cocos Plate
, the Nazca Plate
and the Pacific Plate
- meet. It is an unusual type of triple junction
in which the three plates do not meet at a simple intersection. Instead, the junction includes two small microplates, the Galapagos Microplate
and the Northern Galapagos Microplate, caught in the junction, and turning synchronously with respect to each other.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
several hundred miles west of the Galapagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
where three tectonic plates - 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.-Geology:...
, 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. The ongoing subduction along the Peru-Chile Trench of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the...
and the Pacific Plate
Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....
- meet. It is an unusual type of triple junction
Triple junction
A 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 Microplate
Galapagos Microplate
The 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.