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Niuafo'ou Plate
The Niuafoou plate is a small tectonic plate located west of the islands of Tonga in the region of the Lau Basin. This plate is sandwiched between the Pacific plate to the north, the very unstable Tonga plate to the east and the Australian plate The Australian plate is or was a major tectonic plate in the eastern and, largely, southern hemispheres. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, Australia remained connected to India and Antarctica until approximately when Indi ... to the west. It is primarily surrounded by divergent boundaries. This plate is riddled with active faults thus making the area extremely earthquake prone. See also * References * Tectonic plates Geology of the Pacific Ocean {{plate-tectonics-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tectonic Plate
Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century. Plate tectonics came to be accepted by geoscientists after seafloor spreading was validated in the mid-to-late 1960s. The processes that result in plates and shape Earth's crust are called ''tectonics''. Tectonic plates also occur in other planets and moons. Earth's lithosphere, the rigid outer shell of the planet including the crust and upper mantle, is fractured into seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates or "platelets". Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary (or fault): , , or . The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. Faults tend to be geologically active, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. according to Johnson's Tribune, Tonga has a population of 104,494, 70% of whom reside on the main island, Tongatapu. The country stretches approximately north-south. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west, Niue (the nearest foreign territory) to the east and Kermadec (New Zealand) to the southwest. Tonga is about from New Zealand's North Island. Tonga was first inhabited roughly 2,500 years ago by the Lapita civilization, Polynesian settlers who gradually evolved a distinct and strong ethnic identity, language, and culture as the Tongan people. They quickly established a powerful footing across the South Pacific, and this period of Tong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lau Basin
The Lau Basin is a back-arc basin (also addressed as "interarc basin") at the Australian-Pacific plate boundary. It is formed by the Pacific plate subducting under the Australian plate. The Tonga-Kermadec Ridge, a frontal arc, and the Lau-Colville Ridge, a Back-arc region, remnant arc, sit to the eastern and western sides of the basin, respectively.Gill, J. B. 1976. "Composition and Age of Lau Basin and Ridge Volcanic Rocks: Implications for Evolution of an Interarc Basin and Remnant Arc." Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 87 (10): 1384–1395. The basin has a raised transition area to the south where it joins the Havre Trough. History Lau Basin is a young basin (much is less than 5 million years old) that separates a previously continuous island arc by Extensional tectonics, extensional rifting and spreading. During the Pliocene, the Pacific plate was subducting beneath the Australian plate. The slab of the Pacific plate melted as it was thrust down, and then rose to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. The plate is bounded on the east and north by the Pacific plate, on the northwest by the Niuafo’ou microplate, on the west and south by the Indo-Australian plate. The Tonga plate is subducting the Pacific plate along the Tonga Trench. This subduction turns into a transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault (geology), fault along a plate boundary where the motion (physics), motion is predominantly Horizontal plane, horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either an ... boundary north of Tonga. An active rift or spreading center separates the Tonga plate from the Australian plate and the Niuafo’ou microplate to the west. The Tonga plate is se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Plate
The Australian plate is or was a major tectonic plate in the eastern and, largely, southern hemispheres. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, Australia remained connected to India and Antarctica until approximately when India broke away and began moving north. Australia and Antarctica had begun rifting by and completely separated a while after this, some believing as recently as , but most accepting presently that this had occurred by . The Australian plate later fused with the adjacent Indian plate beneath the Indian Ocean to form a single Indo-Australian plate. However, recent studies suggest that the two plates may have once again split apart and have been separate plates for at least 3 million years. The Australian plate includes the continent of Australia, including Tasmania, as well as portions of New Guinea, New Zealand and the Indian Ocean basin. Scope The continental crust of this plate covers the whole of Australia, the Gulf of Carpentaria, sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divergent Boundary
In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary (also known as a constructive boundary or an extensional boundary) is a linear feature that exists between two List of tectonic plates, tectonic plates that are moving away from each other. Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce rift (geology), rifts, which eventually become rift valleys. Most active divergent plate boundaries occur between Oceanic crust, oceanic plates and exist as mid-oceanic ridges. Current research indicates that complex convection within the Earth's mantle allows material to rise to the base of the lithosphere beneath each divergent plate boundary. This supplies the area with huge amounts of heat and a reduction in pressure that melts Rock (geology), rock from the asthenosphere (or upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle) beneath the rift area, forming large flood basalt or lava flows. Each eruption occurs in only a part of the plate boundary at any one time, but when it does ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fault (geology)
In geology, a fault is a Fracture (geology), planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of Rock (geology), rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust (geology), crust result from the action of Plate tectonics, plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as the megathrust faults of subduction, subduction zones or transform faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. Faults may also displace slowly, by aseismic creep. A ''fault plane'' is the Plane (geometry), plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A ''fault trace'' or ''fault line'' is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on geological maps to represent a fault. A ''fault zone'' is a cluster of parallel faults. However, the term is also used for the zone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tectonic Plates
Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century. Plate tectonics came to be accepted by geoscientists after seafloor spreading was validated in the mid-to-late 1960s. The processes that result in plates and shape Earth's crust are called ''tectonics''. Tectonic plates also occur in other planets and moons. Earth's lithosphere, the rigid outer shell of the planet including the crust and upper mantle, is fractured into seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates or "platelets". Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary (or fault): , , or . The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. Faults tend to be geologically active, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
