The Caribbean plate

• Caribbean plate


  Borders the North American plate, the South American plate, the Nazca plate and the Cocos plate
• Borders of the Caribbean plate

  • Regions of intense seismic activity including frequent earthquakes, occasional tsunamis and volcanic eruptions
• Convergent plate boundary east of the Caribbean plate

  1. North American and South American plates are slowly moving west and being pushed under the margin of the Caribbean plate

  2. Results in the formation of a volcanic island arc
• Convergent plate boundary west of the Caribbean plate

  1. Cocos plate moves east and is being pushed under the margin of the Caribbean plate

  2. Results in volcanoes and earthquakes
• Transform plate boundary north of the Caribbean plate


  North American plate slides past the South American plate
• Transform plate boundary through Trinidad and close to the north coast of Venezuela


  Movements result in earthquakes
• Divergent plate boundary west of Jamaica

  Cayman Island Ridge
• Island arc


  Long, curved chain of oceanic islands associated with intense volcanic and seismic activity
• Volcanic arc


  • Formed from continent-oceanic interaction
• Island arc


  • Formed from oceanic-oceanic interaction
• Formation of island arc

  1. Lithospheric slab is being subducted

  2. Slab melts at depth where it is sufficiently hot

  3. Remelted material from the subducting slab rises and leaks into the crust forming a series of volcanoes making a chain of islands
• Examples of island arcs

  • Japan
  • Aleutian Islands of Alaska
  • Mariana Islands
  • Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean
• The abundance of volcanic rocks around the Pacific Ocean has led to the designation of the Pacific margin as a 'Ring of Fire'
• Most of the world's active volcanoes are found in the 'Ring of Fire' belt