The Philippine Sea Plate or the Philippine Plate is a
tectonic plate
Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...
comprising oceanic
lithosphere that lies beneath the
Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern
Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
, are part of the
Philippine Mobile Belt, which is geologically and tectonically separate from the Philippine Sea Plate.
The plate is bordered mostly by
convergent boundaries
A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a ...
:
[Smoczyk, G.M., Hayes, G.P., Hamburger, M.W., Benz, H.M., Villaseñor, Antonio, and Furlong, K.P., 2013]
Seismicity of the Earth 1900–2012 Philippine Sea Plate and vicinity
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010–1083-M, scale 1:10,000,000, ''https://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20101083m''. To the north, the Philippine Sea Plate meets the
Okhotsk Plate at the
Nankai Trough
The is a submarine trough located south of the Nankaidō region of Japan's island of Honshu, extending approximately offshore. The underlying fault, the ''Nankai megathrust,'' is the source of the devastating Nankai megathrust earthquakes, w ...
. The Philippine Sea Plate, the
Amurian Plate, and the Okhotsk Plate meet near
Mount Fuji in Japan. The thickened crust of the Izu–Bonin–Mariana arc colliding with Japan constitutes the Izu Collision Zone. The east of the plate includes the
Izu Izu may refer to:
Places
*Izu Province, a part of modern-day Shizuoka prefecture in Japan
**Izu, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka prefecture
**Izu Peninsula, near Tokyo
**Izu Islands, located off the Izu Peninsula
People with the surname
*, Japane ...
–
Ogasawara (Bonin) and the
Mariana Islands, forming the
Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc
The Izu–Bonin–Mariana (IBM) arc system is a tectonic plate convergent boundary in Micronesia. The IBM arc system extends over 2800 km south from Tokyo, Japan, to beyond Guam, and includes the Izu Islands, the Bonin Islands, and the Marian ...
system. There is also a
divergent boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the small
Mariana Plate which carries the Mariana Islands. To the east, the
Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Philippine Sea Plate at the
Izu–Ogasawara Trench. To the south, the Philippine Sea Plate is bounded by the
Caroline Plate and
Bird's Head Plate. To the west, the Philippine Sea Plate subducts under the
Philippine Mobile Belt at the
Philippine Trench and the
East Luzon Trench. (The adjacent rendition of Prof. Peter Bird's map is inaccurate in this respect.) To the northwest, the Philippine Sea Plate meets
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
and the
Nansei islands on the
Okinawa Plate, and southern Japan on the
Amurian Plate.
It also meets the
Yangtze Plate
The Yangtze Plate, also called the South China Block or the South China Subplate, comprises the bulk of southern China. It is separated on the east from the Okinawa Plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a back-arc basin, on the s ...
due northwest.
See also
*
List of earthquakes in Guam
*
List of earthquakes in Japan
This is a list of earthquakes in Japan with either a magnitude greater than or equal to 7.0 or which caused significant damage or casualties. As indicated below, magnitude is measured on the Richter magnitude scale (''ML'') or the moment magnitud ...
*
List of earthquakes in the Philippines
References
*
External links
* High-resolution map o
Tectonic Plate Boundaries* Map showin
Seismicity of the Earth, 1900‒2012: Philippine Sea Plate and VicinityUnited States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
Tectonic plates
Natural history of Oceania
Natural history of the Philippines
Natural history of Taiwan
Natural history of Japan
Environment of Micronesia
Philippine Sea
Geology of the Philippines
Geology of the Pacific Ocean
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