Is the Caribbean plate convergent or divergent?

Near the eastern margin of the Caribbean plate there are recently active volcanoes in the lesser Antilles. These are associated with a convergent plate boundary and caused by subduction of the North American plate beneath the eastern edge of the Caribbean plate.

What type of plate boundary is near the Caribbean?

In the Caribbean Sea, the U. S. Virgin Islands lie along a transform plate boundary where the small Caribbean Plate moves eastward past the oceanic part of the North American Plate.

What type of tectonic plate is the Caribbean plate?

oceanic tectonic plate
The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America.

What kind of boundary is between the Caribbean plate and the South American plate?

The South American plate lies mostly to the South. This is a transform plate boundary, and the Cocos plate lies to the west and this is a converging plate boundary. The northern boundary of the Caribbean plate with the North American plate is a transform plate boundary, as seen in the image above.

What two plates formed the Caribbean islands?

The Caribbean plate is being pushed eastward due to a thick section of the South American plate called a “cratonic keel.” This section of crust is three times thicker than its surroundings. Meanwhile, part of the South American plate is being pushed beneath the Caribbean plate, a process called subduction.

Which plate is west of the Caribbean plate?

Observations. The Caribbean plate is sandwiched between the North American and South American plates to the east and the Cocos, Nazca and North Andean plates to the west.

Is the Caribbean plate a major plate?

These two major plates and two minor plates bordering it includes oceanic and continental crust. The Caribbean Sea covers most of the plate with Central America and volcanic islands covering the rest. The edges of the plate have intense seismic activity, frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Is the South American Plate convergent or divergent?

The South American Plate is the smallest major plate But the eastern edge lies in the Atlantic Ocean at a divergent plate boundary. Along the African Plate boundary, these two plate boundaries pull apart from each other. This diverging plate motion creates some of the youngest oceanic crust on the planet.

Which plates are being pushed under the Caribbean plate?

[13] Three plates subduct under the Caribbean plate (Figure 1): the North and South American plates (at the Lesser Antilles), the North American plate (at the Puerto Rico Trough) and the Cocos plate (at the Middle America Trench) [Molnar and Sykes, 1969].

Where are the divergent plate boundaries?

mid-ocean oceanic ridges
Most divergent boundaries are located along mid-ocean oceanic ridges (although some are on land). The mid-ocean ridge system is a giant undersea mountain range, and is the largest geological feature on Earth; at 65,000 km long and about 1000 km wide, it covers 23% of Earth’s surface (Figure 4.5. 1).