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Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that Earth 's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since about 3.4 billion years ago. [2] The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an ...
Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by accretion from the solar nebula. [4] [5] [6] Volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean, but the early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen.
Midcontinent Rift System. The Midcontinent Rift System (MRS) or Keweenawan Rift is a 2,000 km (1,200 mi) long geological rift in the center of the North American continent and south-central part of the North American plate. It formed when the continent's core, the North American craton, began to split apart during the Mesoproterozoic era of the ...
Pelso Plate – Small tectonic unit in the Pannonian Basin in Europe. Timor Plate – Microplate in Southeast Asia carrying the island of Timor and surrounding islands. Tisza Plate – Tectonic microplate, in present-day Europe. Juan de Fuca Plate – Small tectonic plate in the eastern North Pacific – 250,000 km 2.
The Juan de Fuca Plate is a small tectonic plate ( microplate) generated from the Juan de Fuca Ridge that is subducting beneath the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone. [2] It is named after the explorer of the same name. One of the smallest of Earth's tectonic plates, the Juan de ...
The geological history of the Earth follows the major geological events in Earth's past based on the geological time scale, a system of chronological measurement based on the study of the planet's rock layers ( stratigraphy ). Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula, a disk-shaped mass of dust and gas left ...
Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') is the scientific theory that Earth 's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since about 3.4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea ...
The South Sandwich Plate or the Sandwich Plate is a small tectonic plate ( microplate) bounded by the subducting South American Plate to the east, the Antarctic Plate to the south, and the Scotia Plate to the west. The plate is separated from the Scotia Plate by the East Scotia Rise, a back-arc spreading ridge formed by the subduction zone on ...