Young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America
Cocos Plate
Type
Minor
Approximate area
2,900,000 km2[1]
Movement1
north-east
Speed1
67 mm/year
Features
Cocos Island, Pacific Ocean
1Relative to the African Plate
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The Cocos Plate is a young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides upon it. The Cocos Plate was created approximately 23 million years ago when the Farallon Plate broke into two pieces, which also created the Nazca Plate. The Cocos Plate also broke into two pieces, creating the small Rivera Plate.[2] The Cocos Plate is bounded by several different plates. To the northeast it is bounded by the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. To the west it is bounded by the Pacific Plate and to the south by the Nazca Plate.
The only land above water on the Cocos Plate is Cocos Island, which is administered by Costa Rica and lies approximately 550 km (342 mi; 297 nmi) southwest of the Costa Rican mainland.
^"Here are the Sizes of Tectonic or Lithospheric Plates". Archived from the original on 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
^Manea, V.C.; Manea, M.; Ferarri, L. (2013). "A geodynamical perspective on the subduction of Cocos and Rivera plates beneath Mexico and Central America" (PDF). Tectonophysics. 609: 56–81. Bibcode:2013Tectp.609...56M. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2012.12.039. Retrieved 24 April 2017.[permanent dead link]
The CocosPlate is a young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides...
Fuca plates, subducting under the northern part of the North American Plate; the CocosPlate subducting under Central America; and the Nazca Plate subducting...
Caroline Plate – Minor oceanic tectonic plate north of New Guinea – 1,700,000 km2 (660,000 sq mi) CocosPlate – Young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the...
these junctions. The precursor of the Nazca Plate, Juan de Fuca Plate, and the CocosPlate was the Farallon Plate, which split in the late Oligocene, about...
in area, the Caribbean Plate borders the North American Plate, the South American Plate, the Nazca Plate and the CocosPlate. These borders are regions...
are included, and the only landmass above water on the Cocos tectonic plate. The entirety of Cocos Island has been designated a Costa Rican National Park...
composed of such terranes. The southern boundary with the CocosPlate to the west and the Caribbean Plate to the east is a transform fault, represented by the...
Shire of Cocos, a local government area Cocos Lagoon, south of Guam CocosPlate, a tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean rivers in Romania: Cocoș, a tributary...
is formed by an active subduction zone, with the CocosPlate subducting underneath the Caribbean Plate. The region has been volcanically and geologically...
on the North American Plate, with small parts of the Baja California Peninsula in the northwest on the Pacific and CocosPlates. Some geographers include...
its surrounding plates. The Panama Plate is located between the CocosPlate and the Nazca Plate to the south and the Caribbean Plate to the north. Most...
American Plate along the San Andreas Fault, and a boundary with the CocosPlate. The south-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Nazca Plate forming...
South American Plate at the Peru–Chile Trench. Just north of the Nazca Plate, the oceanic CocosPlate subducts under the Caribbean Plate and forms the...
emerged part of the plate. It is bounded on the west by the CocosPlate, on the south by the Nazca Plate, on the east by the North Andes Plate, and on the north...
different tectonic plates at convergent boundaries around the Pacific Ocean. These include: the Antarctic, Nazca and Cocosplates subducting beneath the...
tectonic plates. The CocosPlate is subducting under the North American Plate at a rate of 67 mm (0.220 ft) per year, while the Pacific and Rivera plates are...
American coast and the triple junction of the Nazca Plate, the CocosPlate, and the Pacific Plate. The volcanically active Galapagos Islands exist on...
Trench and another deformation zone. The Rivera Plate is believed to have separated from the CocosPlate located to its southeast about 5–10 million years...
plate offshore southern Panama. It is bounded on the west by the CocosPlate, on the south by the Malpelo Plate, on the east by the North Andes Plate...
Islands (both situated on the Pacific Plate) and the oceanic islands situated on the CocosPlate and Nazca Plate. Todd defined the oceanic Bonin Islands...
(north to south) the North American Plate, the Rivera Plate, the CocosPlate, the Nazca Plate, and the Antarctic Plate. It runs south from the Gulf of California...
and Australian plates. There are dozens of smaller plates, the eight largest of which are the Arabian, Caribbean, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Nazca, Philippine...
Pacific Plate and the Farallon Plate (which is now mostly subducted, with remnants including the Juan de Fuca Plate, Rivera Plate, CocosPlate, and the...
America Volcanic Arc, which formed as a result of the CocosPlate subducting under the Caribbean Plate, at a rate of 9 cm (3.5 in) per year. It is the largest...
subducting CocosPlate, such as the 1982 El Salvador earthquake. The January 13 earthquake was a result of normal faulting within the subducting CocosPlate as...
geology. Malpelo is one of only two islands on the CocosPlate (with the other being Costa Rica's Cocos Island). It is among the easternmost and least remote...
needed] During the Oligocene, the offshore Pacific Plate fragmented into the CocosPlate and Nazca Plate, divided by the east-west Colon spreading ridge...
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