Explorer Plate

To the east, the Explorer Plate is being subduction under the North American Plate.

The Explorer Plate is the northernmost remnant of the Farallon Plate.

The Explorer Plate broke away from the Juan de Fuca about 4 million years ago and shows no evidence that it is still being subducted.

On the eastern side the eastward moving Explorer Plate is being subducted under the North American Plate.

This rupture created the two small Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates that currently lie off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The Nootka Fault lies between the Explorer Plate in the north and Juan de Fuca Plate in south.

The Explorer Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada.

It is on the Explorer Ridge, a tectonic spreading centre that separates the Pacific and Explorer plates and so the volcanism is rift-related.

The southern boundary is a collection of transform faults, the Sovanco Fracture Zone, separating the Explorer Plate from the Pacific Plate.

The subduction zone separates the Juan de Fuca Plate, Explorer Plate, Gorda Plate and North American Plates.

As the ocean crust of the Juan de Fuca and the Explorer Plate melts, it creates magma that penetrates the crust, causing periodic eruptions of the volcanoes.

The eastern boundary of the Explorer Plate is being slowly subducted under the North American Plate, to which it may eventually accrete owing to the slow rate of subduction.

The small Juan de Fuca Plate and two platelets, the Explorer Plate and Gorda Plate are the meager remnants of the much larger Farallon oceanic plate.

This divergent boundary first formed about 5-7 million years ago when the northern end of the Juan de Fuca Plate broke off along the Nootka Fault to form the Explorer Plate.

The three fragments are differentiated as such : the piece to the south is known as the Gorda Plate and the piece to the north is known as the Explorer Plate.

The cessation of volcanism in the Pemberton Belt might have been caused by steepening of the subducted Juan de Fuca slab after the Explorer Plate formed about 6.0 million years ago.

The Queen Charlotte Triple Junction is a geologic triple junction where three tectonic plates meet: the Pacific Plate, the North American Plate, and the Explorer Plate.

The source of the earthquake was the Nootka transform fault which separates the Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates and has been the origin of at least five additional moderate to large events since 1918.

The peaks formed in the past 35 million years as the Juan de Fuca, Gorda and Explorer plates to its west have been subducting under the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone.

The remainder of the Farallon Plate split, with the part to the north becoming the Juan de Fuca Plate; parts of this subsequently broke off to form the Gorda Plate and Explorer Plate.

It runs between the northern end of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the southern end of the Explorer Ridge, forming part of the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Explorer Plate.

The north-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge.

Others prefer to attribute the hotspot to tensional cracking of the lithosphere above the northern edge of the subducting Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates at the Cascadia subduction zone or interpreted as an edge effect of the subducting plates in the mantle.

To its east is the Explorer Plate, which together with the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate to its south, is what remains of the once-vast Farallon Plate which has been largely subducted under the North American Plate.

About 5-7 million years ago, the northern end of the Juan de Fuca Plate broke off along the Nootka Fault to form the Explorer Plate, and there is no definitive consensus among geologists on the relation of the volcanoes north of that fault to the rest of the Cascade Arc.