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Nazca Plate


My Blogs (olelog) are mainly based on my daily reading of earth science news.

Here on whatonearth.olehnielsen.dk I try to weave some of the pieces together to a greater whole with added background info.

 Plate Tectonics 

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.




Nazca plate treated in Olelog

p.m.


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