Where are the tectonic plates in the Caribbean?

Where are the tectonic plates in the Caribbean?

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

What are the 5 tectonic zones in the Caribbean?

The Caribbean Plate is centered amidst the Cocos, Panama, North Andes, South American, and North American Plates. Landmasses composing the Caribbean Plate include the majority of North Central America (Figure 1, #6,8,10) and the Greater Antilles (Figure 1, #1), as well as the Lesser Antilles (Figure 1, Antillean arc).

What type of plate boundary are volcanoes associated with in the Caribbean?

convergent plate boundary
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.

Are there volcanoes on the Caribbean plate?

In contrast, the Caribbean Plate farther east overrides the North American Plate, creating the island arc of the Lesser Antilles with its active volcanoes. There are currently no active volcanoes in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; the last volcanoes were active approximately 30 million years ago.

When was the last tsunami in the Caribbean?

1946
Fortunately, tsunamis are rare in the Caribbean due to the lack of subduction zones. The last major tsunami to strike the Caribbean was in 1946 after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck the Dominican Republic. The 1946 tsunami was responsible for nearly 2,000 fatalities.

Why is the Caribbean having so many earthquakes?

The island of Hispaniola, home to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, straddles four tectonic plates in the Caribbean ocean, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology said. Earthquakes occur along the boundaries of these tectonic plates, which make up the Earth’s crust. These borders are called faults.

What tectonic plate is Jamaica on?

Caribbean Plate
Jamaica straddles the Caribbean Plate and the Gonâve Microplate, the largest of four microplates that are caught in a crunch between the North American and Caribbean Plates.

Is Barbados on a tectonic plate?

Situated in the Atlantic Ocean, just east of the Caribbean Sea, Barbados is the eastern outlier of the West Indies. These islands trace the edge of the Caribbean tectonic plate as it intersects with the North and South American Places, forming an arc of volcanic islands.

Is Iceland a convergent boundary?

Iceland lies on the Mid Atlantic Ridge, a divergent plate boundary where the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are moving away from each other. As the plates pull apart, molten rock or magma rises up and erupts as lava creating new ocean crust.

What is the border between two plates called?

tectonic plate boundary
A tectonic plate boundary is the border between two plates. The tectonic plates slowly and constantly move but in many different directions. Some are moving toward each other, some are moving apart, and some are grinding past each other.

Where are the fault lines in the Caribbean?

Haiti sits on a fault line between huge tectonic plates, big pieces of the Earth’s crust that slide past each other over time. These two plates are the North American plate and the Caribbean plate. There are two major faults along Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Where are the volcanoes located on the Caribbean Plate?

The Lesser Antilles volcanic arc lies along the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Plate. The arc of volcanoes is composed of 19 active volcanoes as the South American Plate subducts beneath the Caribbean Plate.

What is the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Plate?

The eastern boundary is a subduction zone, the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, where oceanic crust of the South American Plate is being subducted under the Caribbean Plate. Subduction forms the volcanic islands of the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc from the Virgin Islands in the north to the islands off the coast…

What makes up most of the Caribbean Plate?

The plate 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.

Which is on the Caribbean side of the trench?

Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are on the Caribbean side of the trench. Caribbean Plate and South American Plate. The southern border of the plate interacts with the South American Plate. The petroleum fields of Venezuela are thought to be a result of the interaction between the two plates.