How Many Tectonic Plates are There?
There are 14 large, irregular shaped tectonic plates and there are many smaller tectonic plates. Each tectonic plate has a name. The largest tectonic plate is called the Pacific plate. Pacific plate carries the Pacific Ocean. The smallest tectonic plate is the Juan de Fuca plate which lies along the northwest coast of North America. Small tectonic plates are referred to as microplates.
The surface of the Earth consists of 15 major plates and 41 minor ones 11 Ancient plates and 3 plates within orogens, for a total of 70 plates.’ List of them Major plates * African Plate * Antarctic Plate * Arabian Plate * Australian Plate * Caribbean Plate * Cocos Plate * Eurasian Plate * Indian Plate * Juan de Fuca Plate * Nazca Plate * North American Plate * Pacific Plate * Philippine Sea Plate * Scotia Plate * South American Plate [edit] Minor plates * Aegean Sea Plate * Altiplano Plate * Amurian Plate * Anatolian Plate * Apulian Plate * Balmoral Reef Plate * Banda Sea Plate * Bird’s Head Plate * Burma Plate * Caroline Plate * Conway Reef Plate * Easter Plate * Futuna Plate * Galapagos Plate * Halmahera Plate * Hellenic Plate * Iranian Plate * Jan Mayen Plate * Juan Fernandez Plate * Kermadec Plate * Kula Plate * Manus Plate * Maoke Plate * Mariana Plate * Molucca Sea Plate * New Hebrides Plate * Niuafo’ou Plate * North Andes Plate * North Bismarck Plate * Okhotsk Plate * Okinawa P
Tectonic plates are great slabs of rock which form the Earth’s crust. Both the continents and the oceans rest on tectonic plates, which float on the superheated, plastic mantle below. Over millions of years, these tectonic plates float around, driven by convection currents in the mantle, gathering into supercontinents and scattering again. This is called the theory of plate tectonics. Tectonic plates move about as fast as your fingernails grow — 5 to 10 centimeters per year. The Earth has 14 major tectonic plates, and 38 minor plates, for 52 plates total. The major plates are the African Plate, Antarctic Plate, Arabian Plate, Australian Plate, Caribbean Plate, Cocos Plate, Eurasian Plate, Indian Plate, Juan de Fuca Plate, Nazca Plate, North American Plate, Pacific Plate, Philippine Plate, Scotia Plate, South American Plate. The largest are the Antarctic Plate, the Eurasian Plate, and the North American Plate. A continent may include several different plates: for instance, India and Ara
