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 eastern margin is a convergent boundary subduction zone under the South American
Plate and the Andes Mountains, forming the Peru-Chile Trench. The southern side
is a divergent boundary with the Antarctic Plate, the Chile Rise, where seafloor
spreading permits magma to rise. The western side is a divergent boundary with
the Pacific Plate, forming the East Pacific Rise. The northern side is a divergent
boundary with the Cocos Plate, the Galapagos Rise. A triple junction occurs at
the northwest corner of the plate where the Nazca, the Cocos, and the Pacific
plates all join off the coast of Colombia. A second triple junction occurs at
the southwest corner at the intersection with the Nazca, the Pacific, and the
Antarctic plates off the coast of southern Chile. At each of these triple junctions
an anomalous microplate exists, the Galapagos Microplate at the northern junction
and the Juan Fernandez Microplate at the southern junction. The Easter Island
Microplate is a third microplate that is located just north of the Juan Fernandez
Microplate and lies just west of Easter Island.


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