Explorer Plate

A map of the Juan de Fuca Plate showing the Explorer Plate above it.

The Explorer Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada.

The eastern boundary of the Explorer Plate is being slowly subducted under the North American Plate, to which it may eventually accrete owing to the slow rate of subduction. The southern boundary is a collection of transform faults, the Sovanco Fracture Zone, separating the Explorer Plate from the Pacific Plate. To the southeast is another transform boundary, the Nootka Fault separating it from the Juan de Fuca Plate. To the northwest is a divergent boundary with the Pacific Plate forming the Explorer Ridge. The Explorer Plate is the northernmost remnant of the Farallon Plate.

See also

• Geology of the Pacific Northwest

External links

• Cascadia tectonic history

Tectonic plates
Major	African Indo-Australian Plate Antarctic Eurasian North American Pacific South American
Minor	Arabian Caribbean Cocos Juan de Fuca Nazca Philippine Scotia
Other	Adriatic Aegean Sea Amurian Anatolian Australian Balmoral Reef Banda Sea Bird's Head Burma Capricorn Caroline Conway Reef Easter Explorer Falklands Futuna Galapagos Gonâve Gorda Greenland Halmahera Iberian Indian Iranian Juan Fernández Kerguelen Kermadec Kula Madagascar Manus Maoke Mariana Molucca Sea New Hebrides Niuafo’ou North Andes North Bismarck North Galapagos Nubian Okhotsk Okinawa Panama Pelso Philippine Mobile Belt Rivera Sangihe Seychelles Shetland Solomon Sea Somali South Bismarck South Sandwich Sunda Timor Tisza Tonga Woodlark Yangtze
Historical	Baltic Bellingshausen Charcot Cimmeria Farallon Insular Intermontane Izanagi Lhasa Malvinas Moa Phoenix
List of tectonic plates