Caribbean Plate
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[[Image:Tectonic plates Caribbean.png|thumb|right|350px|Detail of tectonic plates from: [[:Image:Tectonic plates.png|Tectonic plates of the world]].]]
The '''Caribbean Plate''' is a mostly [[oceanic crust|oceanic]] [[tectonic plate]] underlying [[Central America]] and the [[Caribbean Sea]] off the north coast of [[South America]].
Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders the [[North American Plate]], the [[South American Plate]], and the [[Cocos Plate]]. These borders are regions of intense [[seismology|seismic]] activity, including frequent [[earthquake]]s, occasional [[tsunami]]s, and [[volcano|volcanic]] eruptions.
==Boundary types==
The northern boundary with the North American plate is a [[transform boundary|transform or strike-slip boundary]] which runs from the border area of [[Belize]], [[Guatemala]], and [[Honduras]] in Central America, eastward through the [[Cayman Trench|Cayman trough]] on south of the southeast coast of [[Cuba]], and just north of [[La Española]], [[Puerto Rico]], and the [[Virgin Islands]]. Part of the [[Puerto Rico Trench]], the deepest part of the [[Atlantic Ocean]] (roughly 8,400 meters), lies along this border. The Puerto Rico trench is at a complex transition from the subduction boundary to the south and the transform boundary to the west.
The eastern boundary is a [[subduction zone]], but since the boundary between the North and South American Plates in the Atlantic is as yet undefined, it is unclear which one, or possibly both, is descending under the Caribbean Plate. Subduction forms the volcanic islands of the [[Lesser Antilles]] [[island arc]] from the Virgin Islands in the north to the islands off the coast of [[Venezuela]] in the south. This boundary contains seventeen active volcanoes, most notably [[Soufriere Hills volcano|Soufriere Hills]] on [[Montserrat]], [[Mount Pelée]] on [[Martinique]], [[La Grande Soufrière]] on [[Guadeloupe]], [[Soufrière (volcano)|Soufrière Saint Vincent]] on [[Saint Vincent (island)|Saint Vincent]], and the submarine volcano [[Kick-'em-Jenny]] which lies about 10 km north of [[Grenada]].
[[Image:CaribbeanVolcanoMap.gif|thumb|left|350px|Volcanoes of the Caribbean.]]
Along the geologically complex southern boundary the Caribbean Plate interacts with the South American Plate forming [[Barbados]], [[Trinidad]] (both on the South American Plate) and [[Tobago]] (on the Caribbean Plate), and islands off the coast of Venezuela (including the [[Leeward Antilles]]) and [[Colombia]]. This boundary is in part the result of transform faulting along with [[thrust fault]]ing and some subduction. The rich Venezuelan [[petroleum]] fields possibly result from this complex plate interaction.
The western portion of the plate is occupied by Central America. The Cocos Plate in the [[Pacific Ocean]] is subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate, just off the western coast of Central America. This subduction forms the volcanoes of [[Guatemala]], [[El Salvador]], [[Nicaragua]], and [[Costa Rica]].
[[Image:Cocos-Caribbean.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Detail of the Cocos and Caribbean plates from: [[:Image:Plate tectonics map.gif|Plate tectonics map]].]]
==Origin==
There are two contending theories as to the origin of the Caribbean Plate.
One holds that it is a [[large igneous province]] that formed in the Pacific Ocean tens of millions of years ago. As the Atlantic ocean widened, North America and South America were pushed westward, separated for a time by oceanic crust. The Pacific Ocean floor subducted under this oceanic crust between the continents. The Caribbean Plate drifted into the same area, but as it was less dense (although thicker) than the surrounding oceanic crust, it did not subduct, but rather overrode the ocean floor, continuing to move eastward relative to North America and South America. With the formation of the [[Isthmus of Panama]] 3 million years ago, it ultimately lost its connection to the Pacific.
A more recent theory asserts that the Caribbean Plate came into being from an Atlantic hotspot which no longer exists. This theory points to evidence of the absolute motion of the Caribbean Plate which indicates that it moves westward, not east, and that its apparent eastward motion is only relative to the motions of the [[North American Plate]] and the [[South American Plate]]. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=RZbjcQEvfN4C&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=%22plate+boundary%22+north+american+plate+south+american+plate&source=web&ots=Xdfg44f15E&sig=59KVPL0hQLpBDUx9FaCzpg1ko_Q&hl=en ''Caribbean Geology Into the Third Millennium: Transactions of the Fifteenth Caribbean Geological Conference'', ed. Tervor A Jackson, University of the West Indies Press, 2002] </ref>
==See also==
*[[List of tectonic plates]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03trench/welcome.html NOAA Ocean Explorer]
* [http://www.geo.tu-freiberg.de/~merkel/vorlesung/OS2001/bachmann_raik.pdf Caribbean Plate formation PDF file]
{{Tectonic plates}}
[[Category:Geography of the Caribbean]]
[[Category:Natural history of the Caribbean]]
[[Category:Natural history of Central America]]
[[Category:Tectonic plates]]
[[ca:Placa del Carib]]
[[da:Den caribiske plade]]
[[de:Karibische Platte]]
[[es:Placa del Caribe]]
[[eo:Karibia plato]]
[[fr:Plaque caraïbe]]
[[it:Placca caraibica]]
[[sw:Bamba la Karibi]]
[[nl:Caribische Plaat]]
[[no:Den karibiske plate]]
[[pl:Płyta karaibska]]
[[pt:Placa do Caribe]]
[[ru:Карибская плита]]
[[uk:Карибська плита]]
[[zh:加勒比板块]]