PLATES

Unlike the other terrestrial planets, Earth's crust is divided into several separate solid plates which float around independently on top of the hot mantle below.

There are (at present) eight major plates:

•North American Plate - North America, western North Atlantic and Greenland
•South American Plate - South America and western South Atlantic
•Antarctic Plate - Antarctica and the "Southern Ocean"
•Eurasian Plate - eastern North Atlantic, Europe and Asia except for India
•African Plate - Africa, eastern South Atlantic and western Indian Ocean
•Indian-Australian Plate - India, Australia, New Zealand and most of Indian Ocean
•Nazca Plate - eastern Pacific Ocean adjacent to South America
•Pacific Plate - most of the Pacific Ocean (and the southern coast of California!)

There are also twenty or more small plates such as the Arabian, Cocos, and Philippine Plates.