The Cocos plate, shown in gray-blue, off the Pacific coast of Central America

The Cocos Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides upon it. Plate tectonics (from Greek τέκτων tektōn "builder" or "mason" describes the large scale motions of Earth 's Lithosphere The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions Cocos Island (Isla del Coco is an Island located off the shore of Costa Rica.

The Cocos Plate is created by sea floor spreading along the East Pacific Rise and the Cocos Ridge, specifically in a complicated area geologists call the Cocos-Nazca spreading system. Seafloor spreading occurs at Mid-ocean ridges where new Oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge The East Pacific Rise is a Mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Galápagos hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the formation of the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. From the rise the plate is pushed eastward and pushed or dragged (perhaps both) under the less dense overriding Caribbean Plate, in the process called subduction. The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic Tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South In Geology, a subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates meet and move towards one another with one sliding underneath the other The subducted leading edge heats up and adds its water to the mantle above it. In the mantle layer called the asthenosphere, mantle rock melts to make magma, trapping superheated water under great pressure. The asthenosphere (from an invented Greek a + ' sthenos "without strength" and Greek word σφαίρα (sphera meaning globe is the Magma (Plurals magmas and magmata) is molten rock that sometimes forms beneath the surface of the Earth (or any other Terrestrial planet Superheated water is liquid Water under Pressure at temperatures between the usual Boiling point (100°C and the Critical temperature (374°C As a result, to the northeast of the subducting edge lies the continuous arc of volcanos stretching from Costa Rica to Guatemala and a belt of earthquakes that extends farther north, into Mexico. Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica,) is a Country in Guatemala (República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west the Pacific Ocean to the southwest The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America.

Detail of the Cocos and Caribbean plates

The northern boundary of the Cocos Plate is the Middle America Trench. The Middle America Trench is a major Subduction zone, an Oceanic trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the southwestern coast of Middle America The eastern boundary is a transform fault, the Panama Fracture Zone. A transform fault is a fault which runs along the boundary of a Tectonic plate. The Panama Fracture Zone is a major active right lateral-moving Transform fault and associated inactive Fracture zone which forms part of the tectonic boundary between The southern boundary is a mid-oceanic ridge, the Galapagos Rise. A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater Mountain range typically having a valley known as a Rift running along its axis formed by The Galapagos Rise is a Divergent boundary located between the South American coast and the Triple junction of the Nazca Plate, the ^[1] The western boundary is another mid-ocean ridge, the East Pacific Rise. The East Pacific Rise is a Mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

The Cocos and Nazca Plates are the remnants of the former Farallon Plate, which broke up about 23 million years ago. The Farallon Plate was an ancient Oceanic plate, which began Subducting under the west coast of the North American Plate &mdash then located in modern A hotspot under the Galapagos Islands lies along the Galapagos Rise. In Geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time (see Galapagos hotspot)

The Rivera Plate north of the Cocos Plate, is thought to have separated from the Cocos Plate 5-10 million years ago. Galápagos hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the formation of the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Rivera Plate is a small Tectonic plate (a microplate located off the west coast of Mexico, just south of the Baja California Peninsula. The boundary between the two plates appears to lack a definite transform fault, yet they are regarded as distinct.

The devastating 1985 Mexico City earthquake was a result of the subduction of the Cocos Plate beneath the North American Plate. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was one of the most devastating Earthquakes in the history of the Americas

References

External links

• The volcanic arc
• Martin Meschede and Udo Barckhausen, "Plate tectonic evolution of the Cocos-Nazca plate": reconstructing its geological evolution