The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.
Contents[hide]In some areas, the cratons are covered by sedimentary basins, such as the Tindouf basin, Taoudeni basin and Congo basin, where the underlying archaic crust is overlaid by more recent Neoproterozoic sediments. The plate includes shear zones such as the Central African Shear Zone (CASZ) where, in the past, two sections of the crust were moving in opposite directions, and rifts such as the Anza trough where the crust was pulled apart, and the resulting depression filled with more modern sediment.
Modern movementsMap of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes(red triangles) and the Afar Triangle (shaded, center) -- a triple junction where three plates are pulling away from one another: the Arabian Plate, and the two parts of the African Plate (the Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate) splitting along the East African Rift Zone (USGS).The African Plate is rifting in the eastern interior along the East African Rift. This rift zone separates the Nubian Plate to the west from the Somali Plate to the east. One hypothesis proposes the existence of a mantle plume beneath the Afar region, while an opposing hypothesis asserts that the rifting is merely a zone of maximum weakness where the African Plate is deforming as plates to its east are moving rapidly northward.
The African Plate's speed is estimated at around 2.15 cm (0.85 in) per year. It has been moving over the past 100 million years or so in a general northeast direction. This is drawing it closer to the Eurasian Plate, causing subduction where oceanic crust is converging with continental crust (e.g. portions of the central and eastern Mediterranean). In the western Mediterranean, the relative motions of the Eurasian and African plates produce a combination of lateral and compressive forces, concentrated in a zone known as the Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zone. Along its northeast margin, the African Plate is bounded by the Red Sea Rift where the Arabian Plate is moving away from the African Plate.
The New England hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean has probably created a short line of mid to late-Tertiary age seamounts on the African Plate but appears to be currently inactive.[1]
ReferencesThe African Plate's speed is estimated at around 2.15 cm (0.85 in) per year. It has been moving over the past 100 million years or so in a general northeast direction
The African plate is around 61,300,000 square kilometers in size.
it is 30.2 million km2
It's divergent
Arabian and southern African plate.
1. Pacific Plate and North American Plate 2. China Plate and Pacific Plate 3. Australian Plate and Pacific Plate 4. South American Plate and Nazca Plate 5. Eurasian Plate and African Plate 6. Eurasian Plate and Arabian Plate 7. Eurasian Plate and Australian PLATE 8. Scotia Plate and Antarctic Plate
Yes. The two plates are moving away from each other from a spreading center running through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
the african plate is continental
The Antarctic plate is directly south of the African plate. It is a divergent boundary.
Arabian and southern African plate.
The Eurasian Plate & The African Plate.
I don't know, which way is the Indo-Australia plate moving?
The indo-australasian or the African plates are moving north
Divergent refers to a plate boundary where plates are moving apart. Plates are not referred to in terms of their boundary movements.
It is moving at 4.65 cm per year
north west
they are moving south and west at the same time
1. Pacific Plate and North American Plate 2. China Plate and Pacific Plate 3. Australian Plate and Pacific Plate 4. South American Plate and Nazca Plate 5. Eurasian Plate and African Plate 6. Eurasian Plate and Arabian Plate 7. Eurasian Plate and Australian PLATE 8. Scotia Plate and Antarctic Plate
The Arabian plate The Arabian Plate was part of the African plate during much of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Red Sea rifting began in the Eocene, but the separation of Africa and Arabia occurred in the Oligocene, and since then the Arabian Plate has been slowly moving toward the Eurasian Plate, where is is pushing up the Zagros Mountains of Iran.
Added a nice link below.
the African plate borders the pacific plate