Earth:Outline of plate tectonics

Short description: Hierarchical outline list of articles related to plate tectonics

This is a list of articles related to plate tectonics and tectonic plates.

General concepts

• Earth:Asthenosphere
• Earth:Back-arc basin – Submarine features associated with island arcs and subduction zones
• Earth:Bimodal volcanism – Eruption of both mafic and felsic lavas from a single volcanic centre
• Earth:Continent
• Crust – Outermost solid shell of astronomical bodies
• Earth:Epeirogenic movement – Upheavals or depressions of land exhibiting long wavelengths and little folding
• Earth:Fault (geology) – Fracture or discontinuity in rock across which there has been displacement
  • Earth:Fault mechanics – Field of study that investigates the behavior of geologic faults
• Earth:Flux melting – The process by which the melting point is reduced by the admixture of a material known as a flux
• Earth:Geodynamics – Study of dynamics of the Earth
• Earth:Island arc – Arc-shaped archipelago formed by intense seismic activity of long chains of active volcanoes
• Mantle – Layer inside a planet between core and crust
• Earth:Mohorovičić discontinuity – Boundary between the Earth's crust and the mantle
• Earth:Mountain
• Earth:Mid-ocean ridge, also known as Oceanic ridge – Basaltic underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonic spreading
• Earth:Oceanic trench – Long and narrow depressions of the sea floor
• Earth:Paleoclimatology
• Earth:Paleomap – Map of continents and mountain ranges in the past based on plate reconstructions
• Earth:Seamount
• Earth:Slab gap hypothesis – Theory in plate tectonics
• Earth:Slab window – Type of gap in a subducted oceanic plate
• Earth:Supercontinent – Landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton
• Earth:Volcano

Tectonic plate interactions

Tectonic plate interactions – Movements of Earth's lithosphere

• Earth:Continental drift – Movement of Earth's continents relative to each other
• Earth:Convergent boundary – Region of active deformation between colliding tectonic plates
• Earth:Divergent boundary – Linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other
• Earth:Extensional tectonics – Geological process of stretching planet crust
• Earth:Isostasy
• Earth:Leaky transform fault – Transform fault producing new crust
• Physics:Mantle convection – Gradual movement of the planet's mantle
• Earth:Obduction – Overthrusting of oceanic lithosphere onto continental lithosphere at a convergent plate boundary
• Physics:Orogeny
• Earth:Passive margin – Transition between oceanic and continental lithosphere that is not an active plate margin
• Earth:Plume tectonics – Geophysical theory of movement of mantle plumes under tectonic plates
• Earth:Ridge push – Proposed driving force for tectonic plate motion
• Earth:Seafloor spreading – Geological process at mid-ocean ridges
• Earth:Strike-slip tectonics – Deformation dominated by horizontal movement in Earth's lithosphere
• Earth:Subduction
• Earth:Tectonic uplift – Geologic uplift of Earth's surface that is attributed to plate tectonics
• Earth:Thrust tectonics – Concept in structural geology
• Earth:Transform fault, also known as Transform boundary – Plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal
• Earth:Triple junction – Meeting point of three tectonic plates

Back arc basins

Earth:Back-arc basin – Submarine features associated with island arcs and subduction zones

Continents

Earth:Continent

• Earth:Africa
• Earth:Antarctica
• Earth:Asia
• Earth:Australia (continent) – One of Earth's seven main divisions of land
• Earth:Europe
• Earth:North America – Continent
• Earth:South America – Continent

Earth:Supercontinent – Landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton

• Earth:Eurasia

Paleocontinents

Earth:Paleocontinent

• Earth:Amazonian Craton – Geologic province in South America
• Earth:Appalachia (Mesozoic) – A Mesozoic land mass separated from Laramidia to the west by the Western Interior Seaway
• Earth:Arctica – Ancient continent in the Neoarchean era
• Earth:Armorican terrane – Microcontinent or group of continental fragments rifted away from Gondwana
• Earth:Asiamerica – Supercontinent that existed in the Late Cretaceous to Eocene epochs
• Earth:Atlantica – Ancient continent formed during the Proterozoic about 2 billion years ago
• Earth:Australia (continent) – One of Earth's seven main divisions of land (Also known as Sahul)
• Earth:Avalonia
• Earth:Baltica – Late-Proterozoic to early-Palaeozoic continent
• Earth:Cathaysia – Late Paleozoic microcontinent
• Earth:Chilenia – Ancient microcontinent, containing central Chile and western Argentina
• Earth:Chiloé Block – Tectonic unit under Chile
• Earth:Cimmeria (continent) – Ancient string of microcontinents that rifted from Gondwana
• Earth:Congo Craton – Precambrian craton that with four others makes up the modern continent of Africa
• Earth:Chilenia – Ancient microcontinent, containing central Chile and western Argentina
• Earth:Cuyania – Ancient microcontinent now part of Argentina
• Earth:Laramidia – Island continent that existed until the end of the Late Cretaceous period
• Earth:Iberian plate – Small tectonic plate now part of the Eurasian plate
• Earth:Insular India – Isolated land mass which became the Indian subcontinent
• Earth:Kalahari Craton – African geological area
• Earth:Kazakhstania – Geological region in Central Asia
• Earth:Kerguelen Plateau – Oceanic plateau in the southern Indian Ocean
• Earth:Laramidia – Island continent that existed until the end of the Late Cretaceous period
• Earth:Laurentia – A large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of the North American continent
• Earth:Mauritia (microcontinent) – A Precambrian microcontinent that broke away as India and Madagascar separated
• Earth:North China Craton – Continental crustal block in China, Inner Mongolia, the Yellow Sea, and North Korea
• Earth:Pampia – Ancient microcontinent or terrane
• Earth:Río de la Plata Craton – Medium-sized continental block in Uruguay, eastern Argentina and southern Brazil
• Earth:São Francisco Craton – Ancient craton in eastern South America
• Earth:Siberia (continent) – Ancient craton forming the Central Siberian Plateau
• Earth:Sundaland – Biogeographic region of Southeast Asia
• Earth:Supercontinent – Landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton
  • Earth:Columbia (supercontinent) – Ancient supercontinent of approximately 2,500 to 1,500 million years ago
  • Earth:Euramerica
  • Earth:Gondwana
  • Earth:Kenorland – Hypothetical Neoarchaean supercontinent from about 2.8 billion years ago
  • Earth:Laurasia
  • Earth:Nena (supercontinent) – Early Proterozoic supercontinent
  • Earth:Pangaea
  • Earth:Pannotia – Hypothesized Neoproterozoic supercontinent from the end of the Precambrian
  • Earth:Rodinia – Hypothetical Neoproterozoic supercontinent
  • Earth:Ur (continent) – Hypothetical archaean supercontinent from about 3.1 billion years ago
  • Earth:Vaalbara

Earthquakes

Earth:Earthquake

• Earth:Blind thrust earthquake – Movement along a thrust fault that is not visible at the surface
• Earth:Intraplate earthquake – Earthquake that occurs within the interior of a tectonic plate
• Earth:Interplate earthquake – Earthquake that occurs at the boundary between two tectonic plates
• Earth:Megathrust earthquake – Type of earthquake at convergent plate boundaries

Oceans

Earth:Ocean – Body of salt water covering the majority of Earth

Ancient oceans

Earth:List of ancient oceans – List of Earth's former oceans

• Earth:Adamastor Ocean – Precambrian "proto-Atlantic" ocean in the Southern Hemisphere
• Earth:Boreal Sea – Mesozoic-era seaway that lay along the northern border of Laurasia
• Earth:Bridge River Ocean – Ancient ocean between North America and the Insular Islands during the Mesozoic
• Earth:Central American Seaway – Body of water that once separated North America from South America
• Earth:Goianides Ocean – Ocean in South America in Neoproterozoic
• Earth:Goiás Ocean
• Earth:Hudson Seaway – Major seaway of North America during the Cretaceous Period
• Earth:Iapetus Ocean – Ocean that existed in the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras
• Earth:Khanty Ocean – Small Precambrian ocean between Baltica and the Siberian continent
• Earth:Lapland-Kola Ocean
• Earth:Mirovia
• Earth:Paleo-Tethys Ocean – Ocean on the margin of Gondwana between the Middle Cambrian and Late Triassic
• Earth:Pan-African Ocean – Hypothesized paleo-ocean whose closure created the supercontinent of Pannotia
• Earth:Pannonian Sea – Shallow ancient sea where the Pannonian Basin in Central Europe is today
• Earth:Panthalassa – Prehistoric superocean that surrounded Pangaea
• Earth:Paratethys
• Earth:Pharusian Ocean – Ancient ocean that existed from 800 to 635 million years ago
• Earth:Piemont-Liguria Ocean – Former piece of oceanic crust that is seen as part of the Tethys Ocean
• Earth:Poseidon Ocean – Supposed ocean that existed in the Mesoproterozoic period
• Earth:Pre-Svecofennian Ocean
• Earth:Proto-Tethys Ocean – Ancient ocean that existed from the latest Ediacaran to the Carboniferous
• Earth:Rheic Ocean – Ancient ocean which separated two major palaeocontinents, Gondwana and Laurussia
• Earth:Slide Mountain Ocean – An ancient ocean that existed between the Intermontane Islands and North America
• Earth:Sundance Sea – Inland sea that existed in North America during the mid-to-late Jurassic Period of the Mesozoic Era
• Earth:Tethys Ocean – Prehistoric ocean between Gondwana and Laurasia
• Earth:Tornquist Sea – Sea between the palaeocontinents Avalonia and Baltica about 600 to 450 million years ago
• Earth:Turgai Sea – Large shallow body of salt water of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras
• Earth:Ural Ocean – Small, ancient ocean between Siberia and Baltica
• Earth:Valais Ocean – Subducted ocean basin. Remnants found in the Alps in the North Penninic nappes.
• Earth:Western Interior Seaway – Prehistoric inland sea that split the continent of North America

Superoceans

Earth:Superocean – Ocean that surrounds a supercontinent

• Earth:Mirovia
• Earth:Pan-African Ocean – Hypothesized paleo-ocean whose closure created the supercontinent of Pannotia
• Earth:Panthalassa – Prehistoric superocean that surrounded Pangaea

Orogenies

Physics:Orogeny

• Earth:List of orogenies – Known mountain building events of the Earth's history
• Earth:Mountain formation – Geological processes that underlie the formation of mountains
• Earth:Fold mountains – Mountains formed by compressive crumpling of the layers of rock

Rifts

Earth:Rift

• Earth:Mid-ocean ridge – Basaltic underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonic spreading
• Earth:Saint Lawrence rift system – Seismically active zone paralleling the Saint Lawrence River

Active rifts

• Earth:Propagating rift – Seafloor feature associated with spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges and back-arc basins

Continental rifts

• Earth:Laptev Sea Rift – A divergent tectonic plate boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate

Oceanic ridges

• Earth:Aden Ridge – Rift portion in Gulf of Aden
• Earth:Explorer Ridge – Mid-ocean ridge west of British Columbia, Canada
• Earth:Gorda Ridge – Tectonic spreading center off the northern coast of California and southern Oregon
• Earth:Juan de Fuca Ridge – Divergent plate boundary off the coast of the Pacific Northwest region of North America
• Earth:East Pacific Rise – Mid-oceanic ridge at a divergent tectonic plate boundary on the floor of the Pacific Ocean
• Earth:Nazca Ridge – Submarine ridge off the coast of Peru
• Earth:Central Indian Ridge – A north-south-trending mid-ocean ridge in the western Indian Ocean
  • Earth:Carlsberg Ridge – Tectonic plate ridge
• Earth:Southeast Indian Ridge – Mid-ocean ridge in the southern Indian Ocean
• Earth:Southwest Indian Ridge – A mid-ocean ridge on the bed of the south-west Indian Ocean and south-east Atlantic Ocean
• Earth:Mid-Atlantic Ridge – A divergent tectonic plate boundary that in the North Atlantic separates the Eurasian and North American plates, and in the South Atlantic separates the African and South American plates
  • Kolbeinsey Ridge (North of Iceland)
  • Mohns Ridge

Aulacogens

• Earth:Gulf of Suez Rift – Continental rift zone that was active between the Late Oligocene and the end of the Miocene
• Earth:Kula-Farallon Ridge – Ancient mid-ocean ridge
• Earth:Mississippi embayment – Low-lying basin filled with Cretaceous to recent sediments
• Earth:New Madrid Seismic Zone – Major seismic zone in the southern and midwestern United States
• Earth:Oslo Graben – An inactive Permian geological rift in Norway
• Earth:Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben – Rift valley extending from near Montréal through Ottawa in Canada
• Earth:Timiskaming Graben – Northwesterly extension of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben

Subduction zones

Subduction zone

• Earth:Middle America Trench – Subduction zone in the eastern Pacific off the southwestern coast of Middle America

Suture zones

Earth:Suture (geology) – Joining together of separate terranes along a major fault zone

• Earth:Iapetus Suture – Ancient geological fault
• Earth:Indus-Yarlung suture zone – Tectonic suture in southern Tibet
• Earth:Trans-European Suture Zone – Boundary between the East European Craton and the orogens of South-Western Europe
• Earth:Vulcan structure – Convergent tectonic boundary between the Medicine Hat and Loverna Blocks in North America

Tectonic plates

• Earth:List of tectonic plates
• Earth:African plate – Tectonic plate underlying Africa
• Earth:Anatolian plate – Continental tectonic plate comprising most of the Anatolian Peninsula (Asia Minor)
• Earth:Antarctic plate – Major tectonic plate containing Antarctica and the surrounding ocean floor
• Earth:Arabian plate – Minor tectonic plate
• Earth:Burma plate – Minor tectonic plate in Southeast Asia
• Earth:Cocos plate – Young oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America
• Earth:Eurasian plate – Tectonic plate which includes most of Eurasia
• Earth:Explorer plate – Oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada
• Earth:Farallon plate – Ancient oceanic plate that has mostly subducted under the North American plate
• Earth:Gorda plate – One of the northern remnants of the Farallon plate
• Earth:Indian plate – Minor plate that separated from Gondwana
• Earth:Juan de Fuca plate – Small tectonic plate in the eastern North Pacific
• Earth:Halmahera plate – Small tectonic plate in the Molucca Sea
• Earth:Indo-Australian plate – Major tectonic plate formed by the fusion of the Indian and Australian plates
• Earth:Pacific plate – Oceanic tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean
• Earth:Molucca Sea plate – Small fully subducted tectonic plate near Indonesia
• Earth:Nazca plate – Oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin
• Earth:North American plate – Large tectonic plate including most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia
• Earth:Philippine Sea plate – Oceanic tectonic plate to the east of the Philippines
• Earth:South American plate – Major tectonic plate
• Earth:Sunda plate – Tectonic plate including Southeast Asia

terranes

• Earth:Armorican terrane – Microcontinent or group of continental fragments rifted away from Gondwana
• Earth:Avalonia
• Earth:Bronson Hill Arc – Bimodal volcanic arc and associated Ordovician sediments
• Earth:Chilenia – Ancient microcontinent, containing central Chile and western Argentina
• Earth:Chiloé Block – Tectonic unit under Chile
• Earth:Cuyania – Ancient microcontinent now part of Argentina
• Earth:Cymru terrane – Inferred fault bounded terrane of the basement rocks of the southern United Kingdom
• Earth:Florida Platform – Geological feature
• Earth:Franciscan Assemblage – A late Mesozoic terrane of heterogeneous rocks in the California Coast Ranges
• Earth:Ganderia – Terrane in the northern Appalachians which broke off the supercontinent Gondwana
• Earth:Gascoyne Complex – Granite and metamorphic rock in Western Australia
• Earth:Great Lakes tectonic zone – Geologic province
• Earth:Great Valley Sequence – Group of late Mesozoic formations in the Central Valley of California
• Earth:Hebridean terrane – Part of the Caledonian orogenic belt in northwest Scotland
• Earth:Ivrea zone – Tectonic terrane in the Italian Alps
• Earth:Lhasa terrane – Fragment of crustal material that forms present-day southern Tibet
• Earth:Meguma terrane – Terrane exposed in southern Nova Scotia
• Earth:Narryer Gneiss terrane
• Earth:Omineca Arc – Volcanic arc terrane in western North America
• Earth:Pampia – Ancient microcontinent or terrane
• Earth:Pelso plate – Small tectonic unit in the Pannonian Basin in Europe
• Earth:Salinian Block – Terrane west of the main trace of the San Andreas Fault system in California
• Earth:Shan–Thai terrane – Mass of continental crust extending from Tibet into Southeast Asia
• Earth:Sonoma Volcanics – Geologic formation of volcanic origin in California
• Earth:Stikinia – Fragment of Earth's crust in British Columbia, Canada
• Earth:Tuareg Shield – Geological formation between the West African craton and the Saharan Metacraton in West Africa
• Earth:Yukon–Tanana terrane – Largest tectonostratigraphic terrane in the northern North American Cordillera

Triple junctions

Earth:Triple junction – Meeting point of three tectonic plates

• Earth:Boso triple junction – Meeting point of the Okhotsk, Pacific, and Philippine Sea plates
• Earth:Bouvet triple junction – Meeting point of three tectonic plates
• Earth:Chile triple junction – Place where the South American, Nazca and Antarctic tectonic plates meet
• Earth:Mount Fuji – Volcano in Japan
• Earth:Iapetus Suture – Ancient geological fault
• Earth:Karlıova triple junction – Place where the Anatolian plate, the Eurasian plate and the Arabian plate meet
• Earth:Macquarie triple junction – Place where the Indo-Australian plate, Pacific plate, and Antarctic plate meet
• Earth:Mendocino triple junction – Point where the Gorda plate, the North American plate, and the Pacific plate meet
• Earth:Queen Charlotte triple junction – Point where the Pacific plate, the North American plate, and the Explorer plate meet
• Earth:Rivera triple junction – Place where the North American plate, the Rivera plate, and the Pacific plate meet
• Earth:Rodrigues triple junction – Place where the African plate, the Indo-Australian plate, and the Antarctic plate meet
• Earth:Tongareva triple junction – Defunct triple junction of the Pacific Plate, the Farallon Plate, and the Phoenix Plate

Other plate tectonics topics

• Earth:Paleoclimatology
• Earth:Paleomap – Map of continents and mountain ranges in the past based on plate reconstructions
• Earth:Plate reconstruction – Process of reconstructing the positions of tectonic plates in the geological past
• Earth:Timeline of the development of tectonophysics (before 1954) – Chronological listing of significant events in the history of tectonophysics
• Earth:Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis – First key scientific test of the seafloor spreading theory of continental drift and plate tectonics
• Earth:Eclogitization – The tectonic process in which the dense, high-pressure, metamorphic rock, eclogite, is formed

Specific areas

(to be reallocated)

• Earth:Benham Rise, also known as Benham Plateau – Extinct volcanic ridge in the Philippine Sea
• Earth:Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain – Pacific Ocean geologic feature
• Earth:Indian subcontinent – Physiographical region in South Asia
• Earth:Mariana Trench – Deepest oceanic trench on Earth
• Earth:Mid-Atlantic Ridge – A divergent tectonic plate boundary that in the North Atlantic separates the Eurasian and North American plates, and in the South Atlantic separates the African and South American plates
• Earth:Mohorovičić discontinuity – Boundary between the Earth's crust and the mantle
• Earth:Molucca Sea Collision Zone – Region of complex tectonic activity in Indonesia
• Earth:Philippine Mobile Belt – Tectonic boundary
• Earth:Ring of Fire – Tectonic belt of earthquakes and volcanoes
• Earth:Tethys Ocean, also known as Tethys Sea – Prehistoric ocean between Gondwana and Laurasia