List of plate tectonics topics

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

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

## Contents

* 1 What is plate tectonics?
* 2 General concepts
* 2.1 Tectonic plate interactions
* 3 Back arc basins
* 4 Continents
* 4.1 Paleocontinents
* 5 Earthquakes
* 6 Oceans
* 6.1 Ancient oceans
* 6.1.1 Superoceans
* 7 Orogenies
* 8 Rifts
* 8.1 Active rifts
* 8.1.1 Continental rifts
* 8.1.2 Oceanic ridges
* 8.2 Aulacogens
* 9 Subduction zones
* 10 Suture zones
* 11 Tectonic plates
* 12 Terranes
* 13 Triple junctions
* 14 Other plate tectonics topics
* 15 Specific areas

## What is plate tectonics?

## 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 - Large geographical region identified by convention
* 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 - The formation of mountain ranges
* 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 - Large geographical region identified by convention

* 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

### Paleocontinents

Earth:Paleocontinent

* Earth:Appalachia (Mesozoic) - A Mesozoic land mass separated from Laramidia to the west by the Western Interior Seaway
* Earth:Armorican terrane - Microcontinent or group of continental fragments rifted away from Gondwana
* Earth:Avalonia
* Earth:Baltica - Late-Proterozoic to early-Palaeozoic continent
* Earth:Congo Craton - Precambrian craton that with four others makes up the modern continent of Africa
* 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:Kazakhstania - Geological region in Central Asia
* Earth:Laramidia - Island continent that existed until the end of the Late Cretaceous period
* Earth:Sahul (continent) - A prehistoric continent that consisted of Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania and Seram
* Earth:Siberia (continent) - Ancient craton forming the Central Siberian Plateau
* Earth:South China (continent) - An ancient continent that contained today's South and Southeast China, Indochina, and parts of Southeast Asia
* Earth:Sunda (continent) - A prehistoric continent that consisted of mainland and maritime Southeast Asia
* Earth:Supercontinent - Landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton
* Earth:Euramerica
* Biology:Gondwana
* Earth:Pangaea
* Earth:Pannotia - Hypothesized Neoproterozoic supercontinent from the end of the Precambrian
* Earth:Rodinia - Hypothetical Neoproterozoic supercontinent
* Earth:Vaalbara

## Earthquakes

Earth:Earthquake - Sudden movement of the Earth's crust

* 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:Mirovia
* Earth:Panthalassa - Prehistoric superocean that surrounded Pangaea
* Earth:Tethys Ocean - Prehistoric ocean between Gondwana and Laurasia

#### Superoceans

Earth:Superocean - Ocean that surrounds a supercontinent

* Earth:Mirovia
* Earth:Panthalassa - Prehistoric superocean that surrounded Pangaea

## Orogenies

Physics:Orogeny - The formation of mountain ranges

* 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 rifts - Seafloor features 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: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: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:Vulcan structure - Convergent tectonic boundary between the Medicine Hat and Loverna Blocks in North America

## Tectonic plates

* Earth:List of tectonic plates - Overview of different types of tectonic plates
* Earth:African Plate - Tectonic plate underlying Africa
* Earth:Anatolian Plate - Continental tectonic plate comprising most of the Anatolia (Asia Minor) peninsula
* 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 the continent 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 - A major tectonic plate formed by the fusion of the Indian and the 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 which includes most of South America and a large part of the south Atlantic
* 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:Cassiar Terrane - Cretaceous terrane located in the Northern Interior of British Columbia and southern Yukon
* 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:Great Lakes tectonic zone - Geologic province
* 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:Omineca Arc - Volcanic arc terrane in western North America
* Earth:Pelso Plate - Small tectonic unit in the Pannonian Basin in Europe
* Earth:Shan–Thai Terrane - Mass of continental crust extending from Tibet into Southeast Asia
* 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:Wrangellia Terrane - A terrane extending from south-central Alaska through southwestern Yukon and along the Coast of British Columbia

## Triple junctions

Earth:Triple junction - Meeting point of three tectonic plates

* Earth:Banda Sea Triple Junction - Point where the boundaries of the Indo-Australian Plate, the Pacific Plate and the Eurasian Plate meet
* Earth:Boso Triple Junction - The meeting point of the Okhotsk Plate, the Pacific Plate, and the Philippine Sea Plate
* 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:Fifteen-Twenty Fracture Zone - A fracture zone on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the migrating triple junction between the North American, South American, and Nubian plates
* Earth:Mount Fuji - Volcano in Japan
* Earth:Galapagos Triple Junction - Place where the boundaries of the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate, and the Pacific Plate meet
* Earth:Iapetus Suture - Ancient geological fault
* Earth:Kamchatka-Aleutian Triple Junction - Place where the Pacific Plate, the Okhotsk Plate, and the North American Plate meet
* 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: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:Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain - Pacific Ocean geologic feature
* Earth:Indian subcontinent - Physiographical region in South Asia
* 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:Tethys Ocean, also known as Tethys Sea - Prehistoric ocean between Gondwana and Laurasia

‹ The template below (Physical Earth) is being considered for merging. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›

* v
* t
* e

white;">Earth

#0055AA;">Continents|

* Africa
* Antarctica
* Asia
* Australia
* Europe
* North America
* South America

#0055AA;">Oceans|

* Arctic Ocean
* Atlantic Ocean
* Indian Ocean
* Pacific Ocean
* Southern Ocean

#0055AA;">Earth|

* Geography
* Geology
* Future of Earth
* Geological history of Earth
* History of Earth
* Plate tectonics
* Structure of the Earth

#0055AA;">Environment|

* Biome
* Ecology
* Ecosystem
* Nature
* Wilderness

Related|

* Earth Day
* Earth science
* Geologic record
* Geology of solar terrestrial planets
* Location in Universe
* Solar System
* World

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Tectonic plates

Major|

* African
* Indo-Australian Plate
* Australian
* Indian
* Antarctic
* Eurasian
* North American
* Pacific
* South American

Minor|

* Amurian
* Arabian
* Caribbean
* Caroline
* Cocos
* Juan de Fuca
* Nazca
* Okhotsk
* Philippine
* Scotia
* Somali
* Yangtze

Other|

* Adriatic
* Aegean Sea
* Anatolian
* Balmoral Reef
* Banda Sea
* Bird's Head
* Burma
* Capricorn
* Coiba
* Conway Reef
* Easter
* Explorer
* Futuna
* Galapagos
* Gonâve
* Gorda
* Greenland
* Halmahera
* Iberian
* Iranian
* Juan Fernández
* Kerguelen
* Kermadec
* Madagascar
* Malpelo
* Manus
* Maoke
* Mariana
* Molucca Sea
* New Hebrides
* Niuafo’ou
* North Andes
* North Bismarck
* North Galapagos
* Nubian
* Okinawa
* Panama
* Pelso
* Philippine Mobile Belt
* Rivera
* Sangihe
* Seychelles
* Shetland
* Solomon Sea
* South Bismarck
* South Sandwich
* Sunda
* Timor
* Tisza
* Tonga
* Woodlark

Historical|

* Baltic
* Bellingshausen
* Charcot
* Cimmeria
* Farallon
* Insular
* Intermontane
* Izanagi
* Kula
* Lhasa
* Malvinas
* Moa
* Phoenix

* List
* Category
* Earth science
* Commons

* v
* t
* e

Structure of the Earth

Shells|

* Crust
* Lithosphere
* Mesosphere
* Mantle
* Upper mantle
* Lithospheric mantle
* Subcontinental lithospheric mantle
* Oceanic lithospheric mantle
* Lower mantle
* Asthenosphere
* Core
* Outer core
* Inner core

Global Discontinuities|

* Mohorovičić (crust–mantle)
* 410 discontinuity (upper mantle)
* 660 discontinuity (upper mantle)
* D’’ discontinuity (lower mantle)
* Core-mantle boundary
* inner-core boundary

Regional Discontinuities|

* Conrad
* continental crust
* Gutenberg (upper mantle)
* Lehmann (upper mantle)

* v
* t
* e

Geologic principles and processes

Stratigraphic principles|

* Principle of original horizontality
* Law of superposition
* Principle of lateral continuity
* Principle of cross-cutting relationships
* Principle of faunal succession
* Principle of inclusions and components
* Walther's law

Petrologic principles|

* Intrusive
* Extrusive
* Volcanic
* Exfoliation
* Weathering
* Pedogenesis
* Diagenesis
* Compaction
* Metamorphism

Geomorphologic processes|

* Plate tectonics
* Salt tectonics
* Tectonic uplift
* Subsidence
* Marine transgression
* Marine regression

Sediment transport|

* Fluvial processes
* Aeolian processes
* Glacial processes
* Mass wasting processes

* v
* t
* e

Elements of nature

Universe|

* Space
* Time
* Energy
* Matter
* particles
* chemical elements
* Change

Earth|

* Earth science
* History (geological)
* Structure
* Geology
* Plate tectonics
* Oceans
* Gaia hypothesis
* Future

Weather|

* Meteorology
* Atmosphere (Earth)
* Climate
* Clouds
* Rain
* Snow
* Sunlight
* Tides
* Wind
* tornado
* tropical cyclone

Natural environment|

* Ecology
* Ecosystem
* Field
* Radiation
* Wilderness
* Wildfires

Life|

* Origin (abiogenesis)
* Evolutionary history
* Biosphere
* Hierarchy
* Biology (astrobiology)

* Biodiversity
* Organism
* Eukaryota
* flora
* plants
* fauna
* animals
* fungi
* protista
* Prokaryotes
* archaea
* bacteria
* Viruses

* Category

This article does not cite any external source. HandWiki requires at least one external source. See citing external sources. Please help improve this article. Unsourced material may be removed in future.
Find sources: "List of plate tectonics topics" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

|

0.00

(0 votes)

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Earth:List_of_plate_tectonics_topics&oldid=270051"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template