African Plate

tectonic plate underlying Africa

AI overview

The African Plate is a large section of Earth's crust that underlies the African continent and extends into the surrounding oceans. It matters because its movement and interactions with other tectonic plates shape Africa's geography, cause earthquakes and volcanic activity, and influence the continent's landscape and natural features.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: tectonic plate
Has part: Kalahari craton
Named after: Africa
Shares border with: North American Plate
Image: AfricanPlate.png

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Commons category: African tectonic plate

Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

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Encyclopedic overview

The African plate, also known as the Nubian plate, is a major tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Africa (except for its easternmost part) and the adjacent oceanic crust to the west and south. It also includes a narrow strip of Western Asia along the Mediterranean Sea, including much of Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. It is bounded by the North American plate and South American plate to the west (separated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge); the Arabian plate and Somali plate to the east; the Eurasian plate, Aegean Sea plate and Anatolian plate to the north; and the Antarctic plate to the south.

Between 60 million years ago and 10 million years ago, the Somali plate began rifting from the African plate along the East African Rift. Since the continent of Africa consists of crust from both the African and the Somali plates, some literature refers to the African plate as the Nubian plate to distinguish it from the continent as a whole.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “African Plate” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.