North American Plate

The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Cherskiy Range in East Siberia.

The easterly side is a divergent boundary with the Eurasian Plate to the north and the African Plate to the south forming the northern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The southerly side is a boundary with the Cocos Plate to the west and the Caribbean Plate to the east.

The westerly side is a convergent boundary with the subducting Juan de Fuca Plate to the north and a transform boundary with the Pacific Plate to the south along the San Andreas Fault.

On its western edge the Farallon Plate has been subducting under the North American Plate since the Jurassic period. The Farallon Plate has almost completely subducted beneath the western portion of the North American Plate leaving that part of the North American Plate in contact with the Pacific Plate and creating the San Andreas Fault. The Juan de Fuca, Cocos, and Nazca Plates are remnants of the Farallon Plate.

A remarkable feature of the North American Plate is that it is nowhere being subducted, yet it is measureably in motion, thus posing a problem for those who argue that subduction is the primary driving force for plate motion in plate tectonics.

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