The African Plate is both oceanic and continental. It has the whole African continent on top of it as well as the oceanic crust of the Atlantic Ocean….
What kind of plate is African plate?
The African Plate is a major tectonic plate straddling the Equator as well as the prime meridian.
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African Plate | |
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Type | Major |
Approximate area | 61,300,000 km2 (23,700,000 sq mi) |
Features | Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea |
Which plates are oceanic and continental?
The current continental and oceanic plates include: the Eurasian plate, Australian-Indian plate, Philippine plate, Pacific plate, Juan de Fuca plate, Nazca plate, Cocos plate, North American plate, Caribbean plate, South American plate, African plate, Arabian plate, the Antarctic plate, and the Scotia plate.
How do you tell if a plate is oceanic or continental?
Continental plates are much thicker that Oceanic plates. At the convergent boundaries the continental plates are pushed upward and gain thickness. The rocks and geological layers are much older on continental plates than in the oceanic plates. The Continental plates are much less dense than the Oceanic plates.
Is the Eurasian plate oceanic or continental?
The Eurasian Plate is an oceanic plate and a continental plate.
Is Israel on the African plate?
Israel is situated along the border between the African Tectonic Plate and the Arabian Tectonic Plate. The border between these two plates forms part of the Great Rift Valley, the world’s most extensive geological fault, which extends southward through eastern Africa as far south as Mozambique.
What did the African plate create?
The African plate itself seems to be splitting apart. The East African Rift valley runs from Ethiopia southward, creating some of Africa’s largest lakes, such as Lake Tanganyika. This rift is a result of the eastern area of Africa diverging from the western area.
What are the 2 oceanic plates?
An example of an oceanic plate is the Pacific Plate, which extends from the East Pacific Rise to the deep-sea trenches bordering the western part of the Pacific basin. A continental plate is exemplified by the North American Plate, which includes North America as well as the oceanic crust…
What are 3 differences between oceanic and continental crust?
Continental crust is low in density whereas oceanic crust has a higher density. continental crust is thicker, on the contrary, the oceanic crust is thinner. Continental crust floats on magma freely but oceanic crust floats on magma scarcely. Continental crust cannot recycle whereas oceanic crust can recycle it.
What will happen if two oceanic plates collide?
When two oceanic plates converge, the denser plate will end up sinking below the less dense plate, leading to the formation of an oceanic subduction zone. … Old, dense crust tends to be subducted back into the earth. An example of a subduction zone formed from a convergent boundary is the Chile-Peru trench.
Are continental plates older than oceanic?
Continental crust is almost always much older than oceanic crust. Because continental crust is rarely destroyed and recycled in the process of subduction, some sections of continental crust are nearly as old as the Earth itself.
What is the connection between the continental plate and oceanic plate?
Ocean-Continent
When oceanic crust converges with continental crust, the denser oceanic plate plunges beneath the continental plate. This process, called subduction, occurs at the oceanic trenches (figure 6). The entire region is known as a subduction zone.
Is Pacific plate oceanic or continental?
The Pacific Plate is almost entirely oceanic crust, but it contains some continental crust in New Zealand, Baja California, and coastal California.
Is Indian plate continental or oceanic?
The Indian plate is both an oceanic and continental plate. The Indian plate used to be connected to the ancient continent of Gondwana, it fractured…
What are the 12 major plates?
There may be scientific consensus as to whether such plates should be considered distinct portions of the crust; thus, new research could change this list.
- African Plate. …
- Antarctic Plate. …
- Australian Plate. …
- Caribbean Plate. …
- Cocos Plate. …
- Eurasian Plate. …
- Nazca Plate. …
- North American Plate.