This is a list of tectonic plates on Earth. Tectonic plates are pieces of the Earth's crust

Crust (geology)

In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or natural satellite, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle...

 and uppermost mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere

Lithosphere

The lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet. On Earth, it comprises the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater.- Earth's lithosphere :...

. The plates are around 100 km (62.1 mi) thick and consist of two principal types of material: oceanic crust

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, which is rich in iron and magnesium...

 (also called sima

Sima (geology)

Sima is the name for the lower layer of the Earth's crust. This layer is made of rocks rich in magnesium silicate minerals. Typically when the sima comes to the surface it is basalt, so sometimes this layer is called the 'basalt layer' of the crust. The sima layer is also called the 'basal crust'...

from silicon

Silicon

Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...

 and magnesium

Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...

) and continental crust

Continental crust

The continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called sial due to more felsic, or granitic, bulk composition, which lies in...

 (sial

Sial

In geology, the sial is the upper layer of the Earth's crust made of rocks rich in silicates and aluminium minerals. It is sometimes equated with the continental crust because it is absent in the wide oceanic basins, but "sial" is a geochemical term rather than a plate tectonic term.Geologists...

from silicon and aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

). The composition of the two types of crust differs markedly, with basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

ic rocks ("mafic

Mafic

Mafic is an adjective describing a silicate mineral or rock that is rich in magnesium and iron; the term is a portmanteau of the words "magnesium" and "ferric". Most mafic minerals are dark in color and the relative density is greater than 3. Common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine,...

") dominating oceanic crust, while continental crust consists principally of lower density

Density

The mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...

 granitic

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 rocks ("felsic

Felsic

The word "felsic" is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium....

").

Current plates

The following tectonic plates currently exist on the Earth's surface with roughly definable boundaries.

Primary plates

These seven plates comprise the bulk of the seven continents and the Pacific Ocean

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...

.

• African Plate
  African Plate
  The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.-Boundaries:...
  
  
• Antarctic Plate
  Antarctic Plate
  The Antarctic Plate is a tectonic plate covering the continent of Antarctica and extending outward under the surrounding oceans. The Antarctic Plate has a boundary with the Nazca Plate, the South American Plate, the African Plate, the Indo-Australian Plate, the Scotia Plate and a divergent boundary...
  
  
• Eurasian Plate
  Eurasian Plate
  The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia...
  
  
• Indo-Australian Plate
  Indo-Australian Plate
  The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and surrounding ocean, and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and adjacent waters...
  
  
• North American Plate
  North American Plate
  The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland, Cuba, Bahamas, and parts of Siberia, Japan and Iceland. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes both continental and oceanic crust...
  
  
• 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....
  
  
• South American Plate
  South American Plate
  The South American Plate is a continental tectonic plate which includes the continent of South America and also a sizeable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....
  
  

Secondary plates

These smaller plates are generally shown on major plate maps, but with the exception of the Arabian and Indian plates do not comprise significant land area.

• Arabian Plate
  Arabian Plate
  The Arabian Plate is one of three tectonic plates which have been moving northward over millions of years and colliding with the Eurasian Plate...
  
  
• Caribbean Plate
  Caribbean Plate
  The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America....
  
  
• 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:...
  
  
• Indian Plate
• Juan de Fuca Plate
  Juan de Fuca Plate
  The Juan de Fuca Plate, named after the explorer of the same name, is a tectonic plate, generated from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and subducting under the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone...
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• Philippine Sea Plate
• Scotia Plate
  Scotia Plate
  The Scotia Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate bordering the South American Plate on the north, the South Sandwich Plate to the east, and the Antarctic Plate on the south and west....
  
  

Tertiary plates

Tertiary plates are grouped with the major plate that they would otherwise be shown as part of on a major plate map. Mostly these are tiny microplates, although in the case of the Nubian-Somalian and Australian-Capricorn-Indian plates these are major plates that are rifting apart. Some models identify more minor plates within current orogens

Orogeny

Orogeny refers to forces and events leading to a severe structural deformation of the Earth's crust due to the engagement of tectonic plates. Response to such engagement results in the formation of long tracts of highly deformed rock called orogens or orogenic belts...

 like the Apulian, Explorer, Gorda, and Philippine Mobile Belt plates. The remainder of the tertiary plates are the dwindling remains of much larger ancient plates. There may or may not be scientific consensus as to whether a tertiary plate is a separate plate yet, is still a separate plate, or should be considered a separate plate, thus new research could change this list.

• African Plate
  • Madagascar Plate
    Madagascar Plate
    The Madagascar block was once attached to the Gondwana supercontinent and later the Indo-Australian Plate.Thermally-induced rifting in the Somali Basin and transform rifting along the Davie fracture zone began in the late Permian 225 million years ago, with Gondwana supercontinent beginning to...
    
    
  • Nubian Plate
  • Seychelles Plate
    Seychelles Plate
    The spectacular granite outcrops of the Seychelles Islands in the central Indian Ocean were amongst the earliest examples cited by Alfred Wegener as evidence for his continental drift theory...
    
    
  • Somali Plate
    Somali Plate
    The Somali Plate or Somalian Plate is a tectonic plate that is being formed as the African Plate is splitting along the East African Rift. The part of the African Plate which lies on the other side of the rift is sometimes referred to as the Nubian Plate...
    
    

• Antarctic Plate
  • Kerguelen microcontinent
    Kerguelen Plateau
    The Kerguelen Plateau is an underwater volcanic large igneous province , also the microcontinent and submerged continent in the southern Indian Ocean. It lies about 3,000 km to the southwest of Australia and is nearly three times the size of Japan...
    
    
  • Shetland Plate
    Shetland Plate
    The Shetland Plate is a small tectonic plate located off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.It is mostly surrounded by the Antarctic Plate, the western border being a subduction zone. The South Shetland Islands are formed from that collision.-References:...
    
    
  • South Sandwich Plate
    South Sandwich Plate
    The South Sandwich Plate or microplate is a tectonic plate bounded by the subducting South American Plate to the east, the Antarctic Plate to the south and the Scotia plate to the west.The South Sandwich Islands are located on this small plate.- References :...
    
    

• Caribbean Plate
  • Panama Plate
    Panama Plate
    The Panama Plate is a small tectonic plate sandwiched between the Cocos Plate and Nazca Plate to the south and the Caribbean Plate to the north. Most of its borders are convergent boundaries including a subduction zone to the west. It consists, for the most part, of the nations of Panama and Costa...
    
    
  • Gonâve Microplate
    Gonâve Microplate
    The Gonâve Microplate forms part of the boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. It is bounded to the west by the Cayman spreading center, to the north by the Septentrional-Oriente fault zone and to the south by the Walton fault zone and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden...
    
    

• Cocos Plate
  • Rivera Plate
    Rivera Plate
    The Rivera Plate is a small tectonic plate located off the west coast of Mexico, just south of the Baja California Peninsula. It is bounded on the northwest by the East Pacific Rise, on the southwest by the Rivera Transform Fault, on the southeast by a deformation zone, and on the northeast by...
    
    

• Eurasian Plate
  • Adriatic or Apulian Plate
    Apulian Plate
    The Adriatic or Apulian Plate is a small tectonic plate carrying primarily continental crust that broke away from the African plate along a large transform fault in the Cretaceous period. The name Adriatic Plate is usually used when referring to the northern part of the plate...
    
    
  • Aegean Sea Plate
    Aegean Sea Plate
    The Aegean Sea Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and far western Turkey. Its southern edge is a subduction zone south of Crete, where the African Plate is being swept under the Aegean Sea Plate...
    
     (or Hellenic Plate)
  • Amurian Plate
    Amurian Plate
    The Amurian Plate is a proposed continental tectonic plate covering Manchuria, the Korean Peninsula, Western Japan, and Primorsky Krai...
    
    
  • Anatolian Plate
    Anatolian Plate
    The Anatolian Plate is a continental tectonic plate consisting primarily of the country of Turkey.The easterly side is a boundary with the Arabian Plate, the East Anatolian Fault, a left lateral transform fault....
    
    
  • Banda Sea Plate
    Banda Sea Plate
    The Banda Sea Plate is a small tectonic plate underlying the Banda Sea in southeast Asia. This plate also carries a portion of Sulawesi Island, the entire Seram Island, and the Banda Islands. Clockwise from the east it is bounded by the Bird's Head Plate of western New Guinea, Australian Plate,...
    
    
  • Burma Plate
    Burma Plate
    The Burma Plate is a small tectonic plate or microplate located in Southeast Asia, often considered a part of the larger Eurasian Plate. The Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands, and northwestern Sumatra are located on the plate...
    
    
  • Iberian Plate
    Iberian plate
    The microcontinent Iberia encompassed not only the Iberian Peninsula but also Corsica, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and the Briançonnais zone of the Penninic nappes of the Alps...
    
    
  • Iranian Plate
    Iranian Plate
    The Iranian Plate is thought to underlie Iran and parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.It is compressed between the Arabian Plate to the south and the Eurasian Plate to the north. This compression is likely a cause for the very mountainous terrain of the area including the Zagros ...
    
    
  • Molucca Sea Plate
    Molucca Sea Plate
    -Earlier theory:The Molucca Sea Plate was theorised to be a small tectonic plate carrying northern Sulawesi, the Molucca Sea and a portion of the Banda Sea in a region littered with numerous small plates. The theory suggested a subduction zone lies along its northern border with the Sunda Plate...
    
    
    • Halmahera Plate
      Halmahera Plate
      Halmahera Plate has recently been postulated to be a microplate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone of eastern Indonesia.-Regional tectonics:...
      
      
    • Sangihe Plate
      Halmahera Plate
      Halmahera Plate has recently been postulated to be a microplate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone of eastern Indonesia.-Regional tectonics:...
      
      
  • Okinawa Plate
    Okinawa Plate
    The Okinawa Plate is a long narrow tectonic plate stretching from the northern end of Taiwan to the southern tip of the island of Kyūshū. To the east lies the Ryukyu Trench and the Pacific Plate. It is separated from the Yangtze Plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a Back arc...
    
    
  • Pelso Plate
    Pelso Plate
    Pelso Plate or Pelsonia Terrane is a tectonic unit . It is situated in the Pannonian Basin. The Carpathian Mountains and the basin surrounded by them were formed from the Cretaceous till the Miocene in the collision of the continental Europe with smaller continental fragments of Alcapa, Tisza,...
    
    
  • Sunda Plate
    Sunda Plate
    The Sunda Plate is the tectonic plate on which the majority of Southeast Asia is located. It was formerly considered a part of the Eurasian Plate, but GPS measurements have confirmed its independent movement at 10 mm/yr eastward relative to Eurasia...
    
    
  • Timor Plate
    Timor Plate
    The Timor Plate is a microplate in southeast Asia carrying the island of Timor and surrounding islands. The Australian Plate is subducting under the southern edge of the plate, while a small divergent boundary is located on the eastern edge. Another convergent boundary exists with the Banda Sea...
    
    
  • Tisza Plate
    Tisza Plate
    Tisza unit is a tectonic block, microplate. The two major crustal blocks of the Pannonian Basin, Pelso and Tisza, underwent a complex process of rotation and extension of variable magnitude during the Tertiary. The northward push of the Adriatic Block initiated the eastward displacement and...
    
    
  • Yangtze Plate
    Yangtze Plate
    The Yangtze Plate, also called the South China Block or the South China Subplate, comprises the bulk of southern China. It is separated on the east from the Okinawa Plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a Back arc basin, on the south by the Sunda Plate and the Philippine Sea...
    
    

• Indo-Australian Plate
  • Australian Plate
  • Capricorn Plate
  • Futuna Plate
    Futuna Plate
    The Futuna Plate is a very small tectonic plate located near the south Pacific island of Futuna.It is sandwiched between the Pacific Plate to the north and the Australian Plate to the south with the Niuafo'ou Plate to the east.-References:...
    
    
  • Indian Plate
  • Kermadec Plate
    Kermadec Plate
    The Kermadec Plate is a long narrow tectonic plate located west of the Kermadec Trench in the south Pacific. Also included on this plate is a portion of the North Island of New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands. It is separated from the Australian Plate by a long divergent boundary which forms a...
    
    
  • Maoke Plate
    Maoke Plate
    The Maoke Plate is a small tectonic plate located in western New Guinea underlying the Sudirman Range from which the highest mountain on the island- Puncak Jaya rises. To its east is a convergent boundary with the Woodlark Plate. To the south lies a transform boundary with the Australian Plate and...
    
    
  • Niuafo'ou Plate
    Niuafo'ou Plate
    The Niuafo'ou Plate is a small tectonic plate located west of the islands of Tonga. This plate is sandwiched between the Pacific Plate to the north, the very unstable Tonga Plate to the east and the Australian Plate to the west. It is primarily surrounded by convergent boundarys. This plate is...
    
    
  • Sri Lanka Plate
  • Tonga Plate
    Tonga Plate
    The Tonga Plate is a small southwest Pacific tectonic plate or microplate. It is centered at approximately 19° S. latitude and 173° E. longitude. The plate is an elongated plate oriented NNE - SSW and is a northward continuation of the Kermadec linear zone north of New Zealand...
    
    
  • Woodlark Plate
    Woodlark Plate
    The Woodlark Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. The Caroline plate subducts along its northern border while the Maoke Plate converges on the west, the Australian plate converges on the south, and on the east an undefined compressive zone which...
    
    

• Juan de Fuca Plate
  • Explorer Plate
    Explorer Plate
    The Explorer Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada.The eastern boundary of the Explorer Plate is being slowly subducted under the North American Plate, to which it may eventually accrete owing to the slow rate of subduction...
    
    
  • Gorda Plate
    Gorda Plate
    The Gorda Plate, located beneath the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern California, is one of the northern remnants of the Farallon Plate. It is sometimes referred to as simply the southernmost portion of the neighboring Juan de Fuca Plate, another Farallon remnant.Unlike most tectonic...
    
    

• North American Plate
  • Greenland Plate
    Greenland Plate
    The Greenland Plate is a supposed tectonic plate bounded to the west by Nares Strait, a probable transform fault, on the southwest by the Ungava transform underlying Davis Strait, on the southeast by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and the northeast by the Gakkel Ridge, with its northwest border is still...
    
    
  • Okhotsk Plate
    Okhotsk Plate
    The Okhotsk Plate is a tectonic plate covering the Sea of Okhotsk, the Kamchatka Peninsula, Sakhalin Island and Tōhoku and Hokkaidō in Japan. It was formerly considered a part of the North American Plate, but recent studies indicate that it is an independent plate, bounded on the north by the...
    
    

• Pacific Plate
  • Balmoral Reef Plate
    Balmoral Reef Plate
    The Balmoral Reef Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the south Pacific north of Fiji. Clockwise from the north, it borders the Pacific Plate, Australian Plate, Conway Reef Plate, and the New Hebrides Plate. The northern and western borders are a divergent boundary while the rest of the...
    
    
  • Bird's Head Plate
    Bird's Head Plate
    The Bird's Head Plate is a minor tectonic plate incorporating the Bird's Head Peninsula at the western end of the island of New Guinea. Hillis & Müller consider it to be moving in unison with the Pacific Plate. Bird considers it to be unconnected to the Pacific Plate. The plate is separating from...
    
    
  • Caroline Plate
    Caroline Plate
    The Caroline Plate is a small tectonic plate located north of New Guinea. It forms a subduction zone along the border with the Bird's Head Plate and the Woodlark Plate to the south. A transform boundary forms the northern border with the Pacific Plate. Along the border with the Philippine Sea Plate...
    
    
  • Conway Reef Plate
    Conway Reef Plate
    The Conway Reef Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the south Pacific west of Fiji. It is bounded on the east and west by convergent boundaries, the western boundary is with the New Hebrides Plate while the eastern is with the Australian Plate. A short transform boundary also exists with...
    
    
  • Easter Plate
    Easter Plate
    The Easter Plate is a small tectonic plate or microplate in the southeastern Pacific. The plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific Plate, and the east by the Nazca Plate. The entire plate is covered by the Pacific Ocean...
    
    
  • Galapagos Plate
    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...
    
    
  • Juan Fernandez Plate
    Juan Fernandez Plate
    The Juan Fernández Plate is a small tectonic plate located at the triple junction between the Nazca Plate, Antarctic Plate and the Pacific Plate. It is moving in a clockwise direction. The Juan Fernández Islands of Chile are not carried on this plate as may be suggested by the name.-References:*...
    
    
  • Kula Plate
    Kula Plate
    The Kula Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate under the northern Pacific Ocean south of the Near Islands segment of the Aleutian Islands. It is subducting under the North American Plate at the Aleutian Trench and is surrounded by the Pacific Plate...
    
    
  • Manus Plate
    Manus Plate
    The Manus Plate is a tiny tectonic plate located northeast of New Guinea. It is sandwiched between the North Bismarck Plate and the South Bismarck Plate.-References:...
    
    
  • New Hebrides Plate
    New Hebrides Plate
    The New Hebrides Plate is a minor tectonic plate located in the Pacific Ocean near the island nation of Vanuatu. The plate is bounded on the southwest by the Indo-Australian Plate which is subducting below it. The New Hebrides Subduction Zone is extremely active, producing over 20 earthquakes of...
    
    
  • North Bismarck Plate
    North Bismarck Plate
    The North Bismarck Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the Bismarck Sea off the northeast coast of New Guinea.-Tectonics:To the north it collides with the Pacific Plate and the Caroline Plate, part of the western part subducts under the Woodlark Plate of New Guinea, and it is separated from...
    
    
  • North 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...
    
    
  • Solomon Sea Plate
    Solomon Sea Plate
    The Solomon Sea Plate is a minor tectonic plate to the northwest of the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific Ocean, it roughly corresponds with the Solomon Sea west of Papua New Guinea.-Tectonics:...
    
    
  • South Bismarck Plate
    South Bismarck Plate
    The South Bismarck Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the southern Bismarck Sea. The eastern part of New Guinea and the island of New Britain are on this plate.-Tectonics:...
    
    

• Philippine Sea Plate
  • Mariana Plate
    Mariana Plate
    The Mariana Plate is a small tectonic plate located west of the Mariana Trench and forms the basement of the Mariana Islands. It is separated from the Philippine Sea Plate by a long divergent boundary with numerous transform fault offsets. The boundary between the Mariana and the Pacific Plate to...
    
    
  • Philippine Microplate

• South American Plate
  • Altiplano Plate
    Altiplano Plate
    The Altiplano Plate is a tectonic plate located in southern Peru, western Bolivia and far northern Chile. It consists mostly of the central Andes and the Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. The western border is where the Nazca Plate subducts underneath this plate....
    
    
  • Falklands Microplate
  • North Andes Plate
    North Andes Plate
    The North Andes Plate is a small tectonic plate located in the northern Andes. It is squeezed between the faster moving South American Plate and the Nazca Plate. Due to the subduction of the Nazca Plate this area is very prone to volcanic and seismic activity....
    
    

Ancient continental formations

In the history of Earth many tectonic plates have come into existence and have over the intervening years either accreted onto other plates to form larger plates, rifted into smaller plates, or have been crushed by or subducted under other plates (or have done all three).

Ancient supercontinents

A supercontinent

Supercontinent

In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and accreted terranes that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today.-History:...

 is a landmass

Landmass

A landmass is a contiguous area of land surrounded by ocean. Although it may be most often written as one word to distinguish it from the usage "land mass"—the measure of land area—it is also used as two words.Landmasses include:*supercontinents...

 consisting of multiple continent

Continent

A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...

al cores. The following list includes the supercontinents known or speculated to have existed in the Earth's past:

• Columbia
  Columbia (supercontinent)
  Columbia, also known as Nuna and Hudsonland, was one of Earth's oldest supercontinents. It was first proposed by J.J.W. Rogers and M. Santosh and is thought to have existed approximately 1.8 to 1.5 billion years ago in the Paleoproterozoic Era. Zhao et al...
  
  
• Euramerica
  Euramerica
  Euramerica was a minor supercontinent created in the Devonian as the result of a collision between the Laurentian, Baltica, and Avalonia cratons .300 million years ago in the Late Carboniferous tropical rainforests lay over the equator of Euramerica...
  
  
• Gondwana
  Gondwana
  In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
  
  
• Kenorland
  Kenorland
  Kenorland was one of the earliest supercontinents on Earth. It is believed to have formed during the Neoarchaean Era ~2.7 billion years ago by the accretion of Neoarchaean cratons and the formation of new continental crust...
  
  
• Laurasia
  Laurasia
  In paleogeography, Laurasia was the northernmost of two supercontinents that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from approximately...
  
  
• Nena
  Nena (supercontinent)
  Nena was an ancient minor supercontinent that consisted of the cratons of Arctica, Baltica, and East Antarctica. Forming about 1.8 billion years ago, the continent was part of the global supercontinent, Columbia. Nena is an acronym that derives from Northern Europe and North...
  
  
• Pangaea
  Pangaea
  Pangaea, Pangæa, or Pangea is hypothesized as a supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration....
  
  
• Pannotia
  Pannotia
  Pannotia, first described by Ian W. D. Dalziel in 1997, is a hypothetical supercontinent that existed from the Pan-African orogeny about six hundred million years ago to the end of the Precambrian about five hundred and fifty million years ago. It is also known as the Vendian supercontinent...
  
  
• Proto-Gondwana
• Proto-Laurasia
• Rodinia
  Rodinia
  In geology, Rodinia is the name of a supercontinent, a continent which contained most or all of Earth's landmass. According to plate tectonic reconstructions, Rodinia existed between 1.1 billion and 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era...
  
  
• Ur
  Ur (continent)
  Ur was a supercontinent that formed in the early Archean eon; the oldest continent on Earth, half a billion years older than Arctica. Ur joined with the continents Nena and Atlantica about to form the supercontinent Rodinia...
  
  
• Vaalbara
  Vaalbara
  Vaalbara is theorized to be Earth's first supercontinent, beginning its formation about , completing its formation by about and breaking up by . The name Vaalbara is derived from the South African Kaapvaal craton and the West Australian Pilbara craton...
  
  

Ancient plates and cratons

Not all plate boundaries are easily defined, this is especially true for ancient pieces of crust. The following list of ancient craton

Craton

A craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere. Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of continents, cratons are generally found in the interiors of tectonic plates. They are characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock, which may be covered by...

s, microplates, plates, shield

Shield (geology)

A shield is generally a large area of exposed Precambrian crystalline igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks that form tectonically stable areas. In all cases, the age of these rocks is greater than 570 million years and sometimes dates back 2 to 3.5 billion years...

s, terranes, and zones no longer exist as separate plates. Cratons are the oldest and most stable parts of the continental lithosphere and shields are the exposed area of a craton(s). Microplates are tiny tectonic plates, terranes are fragments of crustal material formed on one tectonic plate and accreted to crust lying on another plate, and zones are bands of similar rocks on a plate formed by terrane accretion or native rock formation. Terranes may or may not have originated as independent microplates since a terrane may not contain the full thickness of the lithosphere.

African plate

• Atlantica
  Atlantica
  Atlantica is the name given to an ancient continent that formed during the Proterozoic about from various 2 Ga cratons located in what is now West Africa and eastern South America....
  
  
• Bangweulu Block
  Bangweulu Block
  The Bangweulu Block is a cratonic unit that forms part of the Congo craton of central Africa. The Bangweulu Block however consists of Palaeoproterozoic granitoids and volcanics, and is overlain by a Palaeoproterozoic continental sedimentary succession, the Mporokoso Group, and does not preserve...
  
   (Zambia
  Zambia
  Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
  
  )
• Congo Craton
  Congo craton
  The Congo craton, covered by the Palaeozoic-to-recent Congo basin, is an ancient Precambrian craton that with four others makes up the modern continent of Africa. These cratons were formed between about 3.6 and 2.0 billion years ago and have been tectonically stable since that time...
  
   (Angola
  Angola
  Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
  
  , Cameroon
  Cameroon
  Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
  
  , Central African Republic
  Central African Republic
  The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
  
  , Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon
  Gabon
  Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
  
  , Sudan
  Sudan
  Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
  
  , and Zambia
  Zambia
  Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
  
  )
• Kaapvaal Craton
  Kaapvaal craton
  The Kaapvaal craton , along with the Pilbara craton of Western Australia, are the only remaining areas of pristine 3.6-2.5 Ga crust on Earth...
  
   (South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
  )
• Kalahari Craton
  Kalahari craton
  The Kalahari craton is a craton, an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere with thick crust and deep lithospheric roots extending up to a few hundred kilometers into the Earth's mantle, that occupies a large portion of South Africa and consists of the Kaapvaal, the Zimbabwe craton, the...
  
   (South Africa)
• Saharan Craton (Algeria
  Algeria
  Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
  
  )
• Sebakwe proto-Craton (Zimbabwe)
• Tanzanian Craton (Tanzania
  Tanzania
  The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
  
  )
• West African Craton
  West African craton
  The West African craton is one of the five large masses, or cratons, of the Precambrian basement rock of Africa that make up the African Plate, the others being the Kalahari craton, Congo craton, Saharan Metacraton and Tanzania craton. These land masses came together in the late Precambrian and...
  
   (Algeria
  Algeria
  Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
  
  , Benin
  Benin
  Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
  
  , Burkina Faso
  Burkina Faso
  Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
  
  , Côte d'Ivoire
  Côte d'Ivoire
  The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
  
  , Gambia, Ghana
  Ghana
  Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
  
  , Guinea
  Guinea
  Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
  
  , Guinea Bissau, Liberia
  Liberia
  Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
  
  , Mali
  Mali
  Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
  
  , Mauritania
  Mauritania
  Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
  
  , Morocco
  Morocco
  Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
  
  , Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
  , Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
  
  , and Togo
  Togo
  Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
  
  )
• Zaire Craton (Congo)
• Zimbabwe Craton
  Zimbabwe craton
  The Zimbabwe craton is an area in Southern Africa of ancient continental crust and an example of Early Archaean lithology dating back to 3.5 billion years ago in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe. Late Archean metamorphism joined the Southern Marginal Zone of the Kaapvaal craton to the...
  
   (Zimbabwe)

Antarctica plate

• Bellingshausen Plate
  Bellingshausen Plate
  The Bellingshausen Plate was an ancient tectonic plate that fused onto the Antarctic Plate. It is named after the Baltic German-Russian explorer of Antarctica, Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen....
  
  
• Charcot Plate
  Charcot Plate
  The Charcot Plate was a fragment of the Phoenix Plate. The Charcot Plate is subducting under West Antarctica. The subduction of the Charcot Plate stopped before 83 Ma, and became fused onto the Antarctic Peninsula. There are remnants of the western part of the Charcot Plate in the Bellingshausen Sea....
  
  
• East Antarctic Craton
  East Antarctic craton
  The East Antarctic craton is an ancient craton that forms most of Antarctica. The East Antarctic craton was part of the Nena supercontinent 1.8 billion years ago.During the early Paleozoic Era East Antarctica joined the Gondwana supercontinent.- Breakup :...
  
  
• Phoenix Plate
  Phoenix Plate
  The Phoenix Plate was an ancient tectonic plate that existed during the mid-Cretaceous through early Tertiary time. The Phoenix Plate began subducting under the Antarctic Plate. The Phoenix Ridge, a mid-oceanic ridge between the Pacific and the Phoenix Plates which had a spreading rate of 18-20 cm...
  
  

Eurasian plate

• Armorica
  Armorican terrane
  The Armorican terrane, Armorican terrane assemblage, or simply Armorica, refers to a microcontinent or group of continental fragments that rifted away from Gondwana towards the end of the Silurian and collided with Laurussia towards the end of the Carboniferous during the Variscan orogeny...
  
   (France, Germany, Spain and Portugal)
• Avalonia
  Avalonia
  Avalonia was a microcontinent in the Paleozoic era. Crustal fragments of this former microcontinent underlie south-west Great Britain, and the eastern coast of North America. It is the source of many of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada, and parts of the coastal United States...
  
   (Canada
  Canada
  Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
  
  , Great Britain
  Great Britain
  Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
  
  , and United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
  )
• Baltic Plate
  Baltic Plate
  The Baltic Plate was an ancient tectonic plate that existed from the Cambrian period to the Carboniferous period. The Baltic Plate collided against Siberia, to form the Ural Mountains about 500 million years ago. The Baltic Plate, however, fused onto the Eurasian Plate when the Baltic Plate...
  
   (Russia
  Russia
  Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
  
  )
• Belomorian Craton
• Central Iberian Plate (Spain)
• Cimmerian Plate
  Cimmerian Plate
  The Cimmerian Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that comprises parts of present-day Anatolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Indochina and Malaya regions. The Cimmerian Plate was formerly part of the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea. Pangaea was shaped like a vast "C", facing east, and inside of the...
  
   (Anatolia
  Anatolia
  Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
  
  , Iran
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  , Afghanistan
  Afghanistan
  Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
  
  , Tibet
  Tibet
  Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
  
  , Indochina
  Indochina
  The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
  
   and Malaya
  Malay Peninsula
  The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...
  
  )
• East China Craton (China
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
  )
• East European Craton
  East European craton
  The East European craton is the core of the Baltica proto-plate and consists of three crustal regions/segments: Fennoscandia to the northwest, Volgo-Uralia to the east, and Sarmatia to the south...
  
   (Russia and Scandinavia
  Scandinavia
  Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
  
  )
• Fennoscandian Shield (Norway
  Norway
  Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
  
  , Sweden
  Sweden
  Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
  
  , and Finland
  Finland
  Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
  
  )
• Junggar Plate
  Dzungaria
  Dzungaria, also called Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...
  
   (China)
• Hunic plate
• Karelian Craton (Finland and Russia)
• Kazakhstania
  Kazakhstania
  Kazakhstania, also known as the Kazakhstan Block, is a small continental region in the interior of Asia. It consists of that area north and east of the Aral Sea, south of the Siberian craton and west of the Altai Mountains and Lake Balkhash. Politically, it comprises most of Kazakhstan and has a...
  
   (Khazakhstan)
• Kola Craton (northwest Russia)
• Lhasa Plate
  Lhasa Plate
  Lhasa Plate was a separate tectonic plate in the Mesozoic. It collided with Eurasia during Cretaceous forming the present-day southern Tibet....
  
  
• Londen-Brabant Plate (Great Britain, Ireland
  Ireland
  Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
  
  , and Germany
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
  )
• Massif Central
  Massif Central
  The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....
  
  
• Moldanubian Plate
  Moldanubian Zone
  The Moldanubian Zone is in the regional geology of Europe a tectonic zone formed during the Variscan or Hercynian Orogeny...
  
   (Austria
  Austria
  Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
  
  )
• Moravo Silesian Plate (Czech Republic)
• Midland Craton (Great Britain)
• North Atlantic Craton
• North China Craton
  North China craton
  The North China Craton is one of the smaller continental cratons of the Earth. It covers a total area of around 1.7 million square kilometres in the northeast of China, most of Korea and the southern part of Mongolia, and has a shape quite akin to a funnel, with a long east-west axis in the...
  
   (China and Korea)
• Ossa-Morena Plate (Spain)
• Piemont-Liguria Plate
  Piemont-Liguria Ocean
  The Piemont-Liguria basin or the Piemont-Liguria Ocean was a former piece of oceanic crust that is seen as part of the Tethys Ocean...
  
  
• Proto-Alps Terrane (Austria)
• Rhenohercynian Plate
  Rhenohercynian Zone
  The Rhenohercynian Zone is in structural geology a fold belt of west and central Europe, formed during the Hercynian orogeny . The zone consists of folded and thrusted Devonian and early Carboniferous sedimentary rocks that were deposited in a back-arc basin along the southern margin of the then...
  
  
• Sarmatian Craton
  Sarmatian craton
  Sarmatian craton is a geological and tectonics term for the southern segment/region of the East European craton also known as Scythian plateau. The craton contains Archaean rocks 2.8 to 3.7 billion years old. During the Carboniferous Period the craton was rifted apart by the Dneiper Donets rift...
  
   (Ukraine
  Ukraine
  Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
  
  )
• Sarmatian Craton
  Sarmatian craton
  Sarmatian craton is a geological and tectonics term for the southern segment/region of the East European craton also known as Scythian plateau. The craton contains Archaean rocks 2.8 to 3.7 billion years old. During the Carboniferous Period the craton was rifted apart by the Dneiper Donets rift...
  
  
• Saxothuringian Plate
  Saxothuringian Zone
  The Saxothuringian Zone or Saxothuringicum is in geology a structural or tectonic zone in the Hercynian or Variscan orogen of central and western Europe. Because rocks of Hercynian age are in most places covered by younger strata, the zone is not everywhere visible at the surface...
  
  
• Siberian Craton
  Siberia (continent)
  Siberia is the craton located in the heart of the region of Siberia. Siberia or "Angaraland" is today the Central Siberian Plateau...
  
   (Russia)
• South Portuguese Plate (Portugal)
• Tarim Craton (China)
• Teplá-Barrandian Terrane (Czech Republic)
• Ukrainian Shield
  Ukrainian shield
  The Ukrainian Shield is the southwest shield of the East European craton. The Ukrainian Shield and the Voronezh Massif consist of 3.2-3.8 Ga Archaean crust in the southwest and east, and 2.3-2.1 Ga Early Proterozoic orogenic belts....
  
   (Ukraine)
• Valais Plate
  Valais Ocean
  The Valais Ocean is a disappeared piece of oceanic crust which was situated between the continent Europe and the microcontinent Iberia or so called Briançonnais microcontinent...
  
  
• Volgo-Uralian Craton, (Russia)
• Yakutai Craton, eastern (Russia)
• Yangtze Craton (China)

Indo-Australian plate

• Altjawarra Craton (Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
  )
• Bhandara Craton, (India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
  )
• Bundelkand Craton, (India)
• Dharwar Craton
  Dharwar craton
  The Dharwar craton in South India presents a natural cross-section of late-Archaean continental crust. There are three main structural zones: a root zone of highly heterogeneous petrology and texture , a "channel zone" where evidences of large scale magma ascent can be observed, and a zone of...
  
  , (India)
• Central Craton (Australia)
• Curnamona Craton (Australia)
• Gawler Craton
  Gawler craton
  The Gawler Craton covers approximately 440,000 square kilometres of central South Australia. Its Precambrian crystalline basement crustal block was cratonised ca. 1550-1450 Ma...
  
   (Australia)
• Indian Craton (India)
• Narooma Terrane
  Narooma Terrane
  The Narooma Accretionary Complex or Narooma Terrane is a geological structural region on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia that is the remains of a subduction zone or an oceanic terrane...
  
   (Australia)
• Pilbara Craton
  Pilbara craton
  The Pilbara craton , along with the Kaapvaal craton are the only remaining areas of pristine Archaean 3.6-2.7 Ga crust on Earth...
  
   (Australia)
• Singhbhum Craton (India)
• Yilgarn Craton
  Yilgarn craton
  The Yilgarn Craton is a large craton which constitutes the bulk of the Western Australian land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins and Proterozoic fold and thrust belts...
  
   (Australia)
• Western Australian Shield
  Australian Shield
  The Australian Shield, also called the Western Australian Shield or Western Plateau, occupies more than half of the continent of Australia. It occupies the portion of Australia west of a line running north-south roughly from the eastern shore of Arnhem Land on the Bay or Gulf of Carpentaria to the...
  
   (Australia)
• Zealandia
  Zealandia (continent)
  Zealandia , also known as Tasmantis or the New Zealand continent, is a nearly submerged continental fragment that sank after breaking away from Australia 60–85 million years ago, having separated from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago...
  
  , see Moa Plate
  Moa Plate
  The Moa Plate was an ancient oceanic plate that formed in the Early Cretaceous south of the Pacific-Phoenix Ridge. The Moa Plate was obliquely subducted beneath the Gondwana margin, and material accreted from it is now part of the Eastern Province of New Zealand....
  
   and Lord Howe Rise
  Lord Howe Rise
  The Lord Howe Rise is an underwater plateau that extends from southwest of New Caledonia to the Challenger Plateau, west of New Zealand. To its west is the Tasman Basin and to the east is the New Caledonia Basin. Lord Howe Rise has a total area of about 1,500,000 square km, and generally lies about...
  
   (New Zealand)

North American plate

• Avalonia
  Avalonia
  Avalonia was a microcontinent in the Paleozoic era. Crustal fragments of this former microcontinent underlie south-west Great Britain, and the eastern coast of North America. It is the source of many of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada, and parts of the coastal United States...
  
   (Canada, Great Britain, and United States)
• Carolina Plate
• Churchill Craton
  Churchill craton
  The Churchill craton is the northwest section of the Canadian Shield and stretches from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta to northern Nunavut. It has a very complex geological history punctuated by at least seven distinct regional tectonometamorphic intervals, including many discrete accretionary...
  
   (Canada)
• Farallon Plate
  Farallon Plate
  The Farallon Plate was an ancient oceanic plate, which began subducting under the west coast of the North American Plate— then located in modern Utah— as Pangaea broke apart during the Jurassic Period...
  
   (split into the Cocos, Explorer, Juan de Fuca, Gorda Plates, Nazca Plate, and Rivera Plates)
• Florida Plate
  Geology of Florida
  During the early Mesozoic Era the supercontinent of Pangea began to rift and break apart.  As North America separated from Africa a small portion of the African plate detached and was carried away with the North American plate. This provided some of the foundation upon which Florida now rests. ...
  
   (United States)
• Hearne Craton (Canada)
• Laurentian Craton
  Laurentia
  Laurentia is a large area of continental craton, which forms the ancient geological core of the North American continent...
  
   (Canada and United States)
• Insular Plate
  Insular Plate
  The Insular Plate was an ancient oceanic plate that began subducting under the west-coast of North America around the early Cretaceous time. The Insular Plate had a chain of active volcanic islands that were called the Insular Islands...
  
  
• Intermontane Plate
  Intermontane Plate
  The Intermontane Plate was an ancient oceanic tectonic plate that lay on the west coast of North America about 195 million years ago. The Intermontane Plate had a chain of volcanic islands called the Intermontane Islands. The Intermontane Islands had been accumulating as a volcanic chain in the...
  
  
• Izanagi Plate
  Izanagi Plate
  The Izanagi Plate was an ancient tectonic plate, which began subducting beneath the Okhotsk section of the North American Plate during 130 - 100 Ma. The rapid plate motion of the Izanagi Plate caused the northward drift of north-west Japan and the outer zone of south-west Japan...
  
  
• Mexican Plate (Mexico)
• Nain province
  Nain province
  In Labrador, Canada, the North Atlantic craton is known as the Nain province. The Nain geologic province was intruded by the Nain Plutonic Suite which divides the province into the northern Saglek block and the southern Hopedale block....
  
   (Canada)
• Newfoundland Plate (Canada)
• Nova Scotia Plate
• Rae Craton
  Rae craton
  right|thumb|250px|North America cratons and basement rock.The Rae craton is an Archean craton located in northern Canada north of the Superior craton.-Ungava Peninsula:...
  
   (Canada)
• Sask Craton (Canada)
• Sclavia Craton
  Sclavia craton
  A Sclavia craton is a late Archean supercraton thought to be parental to the Slave craton. The shape and size of this supercraton are currently unknown....
  
   (Canada)
• Slave Craton
  Slave craton
  The Slave craton is a Canadian geological formation located in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This craton is approximately in size and forms part of the Canadian Shield. It is dominated by ca. 2.73-2.63 Ga greenstones and turbidite sequences and ca. 2.72-2.58 Ga plutonic rock, with large...
  
   (Canada)
• Superior Craton
  Superior craton
  The Superior craton forms the core of the Canadian Shield at the heart of the North American continent. It extends from Quebec in the east to eastern Manitoba in the west...
  
   (Canada)
• Wyoming Craton
  Wyoming craton
  The Wyoming craton is a craton located in the west-central United States and western Canada – more specifically, in Montana, Wyoming, southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and parts of northern Utah...
  
   (United States)

South American plate

• Amazonian craton (Brazil
  Brazil
  Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
  
  )
• Guiana Shield (Brazil, Colombia
  Colombia
  Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
  
  , French Guiana
  French Guiana
  French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
  
  , Guyana
  Guyana
  Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
  
  , Suriname
  Suriname
  Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
  
  , and Venezuela
  Venezuela
  Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
  
  )
• Rio Apas craton
• Rio de la Plata craton
  Rio de la Plata Craton
  The Río de la Plata craton is one of the five cratons of the South American continent. The other four cratons are: Amazonian, São Francisco, Río Apa and Arequipa–Antofalla.It crops out in southern Uruguay and parts of Argentina...
  
   (Uruguay
  Uruguay
  Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
  
  )
• São Francisco craton
  Sao Francisco craton
  The São Francisco craton is located in the eastern part of South America. Outcrops in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Bahia.It includes a number of different blocks of the Archean basement, separated by orogenic belts. The belts are characterized by sediment basins and passive continental...
  
  
• Arequipa–Antofalla craton
  Arequipa–Antofalla craton
  The Arequipa-Antofalla craton or terrane is a basement unit underlying the central Andes in northwestern Argentina, western Bolivia, northern Chile and southern Peru. The Arequipa-Antofalla craton collided and amalgamated with the Amazonian craton about 1000 Ma ago during the Sunsás orogeny....