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List Of Tectonic Plates
This is a list of tectonic plates on Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. Plate tectonics, Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth's crust and uppermost mantle (geology), mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere. The plates are around thick and consist of two principal types of material: oceanic crust (also called ''Sima (geology), sima'' from silicon and magnesium) and continental crust (''sial'' from silicon and aluminium). The composition of the two types of crust differs markedly, with mafic basaltic rocks dominating oceanic crust, while continental crust consists principally of lower-density felsic granite, granitic rocks. Current plates Geologists generally agree that the following tectonic plates currently exist on Earth#Surface, Earth's surface with roughly definable boundaries. Tectonic plates are sometimes subdivided into three fairly arbitrary categories: ''major'' (or ''primary'') ''plates'', ''minor'' (or ''secondary'') ''plates'', and ''microplates'' (or ''tertiary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tectonic Plates 2022
Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons. These processes include those of orogeny, mountain-building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents known as cratons, and the ways in which the relatively rigid tectonic plate, plates that constitute the Earth's outer shell interact with each other. Principles of tectonics also provide a framework for understanding the earthquake and volcanic belts that directly affect much of the global population. Tectonic studies are important as guides for economic geology, economic geologists searching for fossil fuels and ore deposits of metallic and nonmetallic resources. An understanding of tectonic principles can help geomorphology, geomorphologists to explain Erosion and tectonics, erosion patterns and other Earth-surface features. Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felsic
In geology, felsic is a grammatical modifier, modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, which are richer in magnesium and iron. Felsic refers to silicate minerals, magma, and rock (geology), rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. Molten felsic magma and lava is more viscosity, viscous than molten mafic magma and lava. Felsic magmas and lavas have lower temperatures of melting and solidification than mafic magmas and lavas. Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specific gravity, specific gravities less than 3. The most common felsic rock is granite. Common felsic minerals include quartz, muscovite, orthoclase, and the sodium-rich plagioclase feldspars (albite-rich). Terminology Acid rock In modern usage, the term ''acid rock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
:Category:Geology Of Ecuador
{{Cat main Ecuador Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ... Prehistory of Ecuador ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
:Category:Geology Of Colombia ...
{{Cat main Colombia Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afar Triple Junction
The Afar triple junction is a triple junction located along a divergent plate boundary dividing the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian plates. This area is considered a present-day example of continental rifting leading to seafloor spreading and producing an oceanic basin. Here, the Red Sea Rift meets the Aden Ridge and the East African Rift. The latter extends a total of from the Afar Triangle to Mozambique. The connecting three arms form a triple junction. The northernmost branching arm extends north through the Red Sea and into the Dead Sea, while the eastern arm extends through the Gulf of Aden and connects to the Mid-Indian Ocean ridge further to the east. Both of these rifting arms are below sea level and are similar to a mid-ocean ridge. The third rifting arm runs south extending around through the countries of Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and, finally, Mozambique. This southern rifting arm is better known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danakil Microplate
The Danakil microplate (also called Arrata microplate) is a small tectonic plate, (called a microplate) situated in the horn of Africa, spanning over Eritrea and Ethiopia. The Danakil microplate is surrounded by the Nubian plate and the Arabian plate, and is adjacent to the Somalian plate. The extension velocities relative to the Nubian plate vary between 0 mm/yr in the north and 18 mm/yr in the south. Extension velocities relative to the Arabian plate vary from 0 mm/yr in the south to 15 mm/yr in the north. Theses variations imply that the Danakil microplate is rotating counterclockwise. This also implies that the Afar rift in propagating towards the north and the Red Sea rift is propagating towards the south, forming a large-scale relay structure. The Danakil microplate comprises a continental part, forming the Danakil Alps and parts of coastal areas of Eritrea, and an oceanic part, forming the southernmost part of the Red Sea. The movement of the Danakil microplate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithosphere
A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of up to thousands of years or more. The crust and upper mantle are distinguished on the basis of chemistry and mineralogy. Earth's lithosphere Earth's lithosphere, which constitutes the hard and rigid outer vertical layer of the Earth, includes the crust and the lithospheric mantle (or mantle lithosphere), the uppermost part of the mantle that is not convecting. The layer below the lithosphere is called the asthenosphere, which is the weaker, hotter, and deeper part of the upper mantle that is able to convect. The lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary is defined by a difference in response to stress. The lithosphere remains rigid for very long periods of geologic time in which it deforms elastically and through brittle f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orogeny
Orogeny () is a mountain-mountain formation, building process that takes place at a convergent boundary, convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An or develops as the compressed plate crumples and is tectonic uplift, uplifted to form one or more mountain ranges. This involves a series of geological processes collectively called orogenesis. These include both structural deformation (physics), deformation of existing continental crust and the creation of new continental crust through volcanism. Magma rising in the orogen carries less dense material upwards while leaving more dense material behind, resulting in compositional differentiation of Earth's lithosphere (crust (geology), crust and uppermost mantle (geology), mantle). A synorogenic (or synkinematic) process or event is one that occurs during an orogeny. The word ''orogeny'' comes . Although it was used before him, the American geologist Grove Karl Gilbert, G. K. Gilbert used the term in 1890 to me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malpelo Plate
The Malpelo plate is a small tectonic plate (microplate) located off the coasts west of Ecuador and Colombia. It is the 57th plate to be identified. It is named after Malpelo Island, the only emerged part of the plate. It is bounded on the west by the Cocos plate, on the south by the Nazca plate, on the east by the North Andes Plate, and on the north by the Coiba plate, separated by the Coiba transform fault (CTF). This microplate was previously assumed to be part of the Nazca plate. The Malpelo plate borders three major faults of Pacific Colombia, the north to south striking Bahía Solano Fault in the north and the Naya-Micay and Remolino-El Charco Faults in the south. Description The Malpelo plate was hypothesised in 2013 Herrera Cala, 2013, p.69 and identified by a non-closure of the Nazca–Cocos–Pacific plate motion circuit, in a paper published in 2017.Zhang et al., 2017 The formation of the oceanic crust of the plate has been estimated to be since the Middle M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coiba Plate
The Coiba plate is a small tectonic plate (microplate) located off the coasts south of Panama and northwestern Colombia. It is named after Coiba, the largest island of Central America, just north of the plate offshore southern Panama. It is bounded on the west by the Cocos plate, on the south by the Malpelo plate, on the east by the North Andes plate, and on the north by the Panama plate. This microplate was previously assumed to be part of the Nazca Plate, forming the northeastern tongue of the Nazca plate together with the Malpelo plate. Bordering the Coiba plate on the east are the north–south striking Bahía Solano Fault and east of that, the Serranía de Baudó, an isolated mountain chain in northwestern Chocó, Colombia. Description The Coiba plate was identified as early as 1981 by Pennington, and later in 1988 by Adamek et al.Zhang et al., 2017 It is named after Coiba, to the south of mainland Panama, bordering the plate. It was presented together with the new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), the Pacific Ocean is the largest division of the World Ocean and the hydrosphere and covers approximately 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of the planet's total surface area, larger than its entire land area ().Pacific Ocean . ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Britannica Concise.'' 2008: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The centers of both the Land and water hemispheres, water hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere, as well as the Pole of inaccessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
