How many oceanic plates does the earth have

Natural Hazards: earthquakes , volcanoes , tsunami. Geohazards: Tsunami warning system. Plate Tectonics Plate Tectonics. Page Content. There are three types of plate boundary: Divergent or co n s t ruc t iv e pla te boundarie s The plates diverge and this causes the construction of new rock. Source: Wikimedia Commons An example of this is the mid-Atlantic ridge.

Source: Wikimedia Commons The Himalayas are an example of the collision of two continental plates where the Indian plate is crashing into the Eurasian plate and is being forced upwards.

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The surface of the Earth is broken up into large plates. To understand what plates are, it is important to understand both of these different models. When we talk about tectonic or lithospheric plates, we mean the sections into which the lithosphere is cracked.

The surface of the Earth is divided into 7 major and 8 minor plates. The largest plates are the Antarctic, Eurasian, and North American plates. Notably, the Italian island of Sicily is also a part of the African Plate. The Antarctic Plate encompasses the entire continent of Antarctica, as well as the nearby oceans. It is the fifth-largest plate on earth. The Indo-Australian Plate was formed out of a merger of the Australian and Indian plates millions of years ago.

When the Eurasian Plate and the Indo-Australian plates collided many many years ago, the Himalayan mountains were formed. Some scientists, however, believe that the Indian Plate and the Australian Plate are separate plates, and have been so for millions of years.

The South American Plate is a major tectonic plate that covers 43 million square kilometers including South America and the surrounding Atlantic Ocean. Tectonic activity at the boundary between the South American Plate and the Nazca Plate is held responsible for the volcanic activity and orogeny in the region. The Somali Plate is a minor tectonic plate encompassing the African country of Somalia. Currently, the Somali Plate is moving away from continental Africa at a very small pace which equates to around 20 millimeters per annum.

At this pace, Somalia may separate from Africa after millions of years, leading to the formation of a new continent and ocean. The second largest of all minor plates, the Nazca Plate, stretches for The Philippine Sea Plate comprises of over 5 million square km of ocean space adjacent to the Philippines, in the Philippine Sea.

The plate also touches upon both Taiwan and Japan in its northern reaches. The Arabian Plate measures 5 million square km, mostly across the Arabian Peninsula.

The plate also includes parts of the Levant. It lies to the north of South America and south of the islands of Cuba and Jamaica. The Cocos Plate is a minor plate that stretches for 2. It is geographically located off the coast of western Central America. The plate is around 23 million years old, which is relatively young in tectonic plate terms.