Nazca Plate
The Nazca Plate is the 9th-largest of the 52 plates in the PB2002 plate model, covering 16.1 million km² (6.2 million sq mi), or 3.2% of Earth’s surface. The floor of the southeastern Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of South America.
- Area
- 16.1 million km² (6.2 million sq mi)
- Share of Earth’s surface
- 3.2%
- Speed across the plate
- 5.6 to 8.2 cm a year (2.2 to 3.2 in)
- Direction at its center
- Toward the east
- Length of its edges
- 20,150 km (12,520 mi)
- Neighboring plates
- 10
- Edges by type
- 36% convergent · 38% divergent · 26% transform
- Volcanoes on it
- 18 active in the past ~12,000 years
What happens at its edges
It is one of the fastest plates. It sinks beneath South America along the Peru–Chile Trench, the collision that built the Andes, and its oldest parts are destroyed there within a few tens of millions of years of forming.
On its western side it spreads away from the Pacific Plate along the East Pacific Rise, among the fastest-spreading ridges anywhere. The plate is named after the Nazca region of southern Peru.
How fast it moves, and which way
At its center (19.9°S, 92.2°W) the Nazca Plate moves about 7.6 cm (3.0 in) a year toward the east. Because a plate turns around a pole rather than sliding in a straight line, the speed changes across it: from 5.6 cm (2.2 in) a year to 8.2 cm (3.2 in) a year, with an area-weighted average of 7.4 cm a year. That average makes it the 5th fastest of the 52 plates.
These figures are measured against the average motion of all the plates together (the “no-net-rotation” frame), which is how plate speeds are usually quoted. Measured against the South American Plate instead, the Nazca Plate moves about 7.8 cm (3.1 in) a year toward the east at its center.
In the model it rotates about a pole at 47.4°N, 100.4°W at 0.737° per million years. The speeds are averages over years to millions of years of measurement; earthquakes move the ground near a boundary in sudden steps instead.
Neighboring plates and boundaries
Its edges run for 20,150 km (12,520 mi): 36% convergent, where plates move together; 38% divergent, where they move apart; and 26% transform, where they slide past each other. It sinks beneath the South American Plate, North Andes Plate and Altiplano Plate at subduction zones.
| Neighbor | Shared edge | Boundary types | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Plate | 4,430 km (2,750 mi) | Divergent 74% · Transform 26% | 14.0 cm a yearup to 15.1 cm |
| South American Plate | 4,300 km (2,670 mi) | Convergent 100% | 7.8 cm a yearup to 8.1 cm |
| Antarctic Plate | 3,950 km (2,460 mi) | Transform 67% · Divergent 33% | 5.7 cm a yearup to 5.8 cm |
| Cocos Plate | 3,030 km (1,880 mi) | Divergent 68% · Transform 32% | 5.6 cm a yearup to 6.7 cm |
| North Andes Plate | 1,330 km (830 mi) | Convergent 100% | 5.7 cm a yearup to 6.1 cm |
| Altiplano Plate | 900 km (560 mi) | Convergent 100% | 6.5 cm a yearup to 6.7 cm |
| Easter Plate | 860 km (530 mi) | Divergent 56% · Transform 25% · Convergent 19% | 6.0 cm a yearup to 11.5 cm |
| Juan Fernández Plate | 550 km (340 mi) | Convergent 56% · Divergent 44% | 5.3 cm a yearup to 11.2 cm |
| Panama Plate | 510 km (320 mi) | Transform 60% · Convergent 27% · Divergent 14% | 4.0 cm a yearup to 4.0 cm |
| Galápagos Plate | 280 km (170 mi) | Divergent 59% · Convergent 27% · Transform 14% | 3.0 cm a yearup to 3.9 cm |
Relative speed is how fast the two plates move against each other along their shared edge, averaged over its length.
Countries and territories on the Nazca Plate
Each of these is split between plates. The share is the part of each country’s land on this plate.
- Ecuador about 3%
Volcanoes on the Nazca Plate
The Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program lists 18 volcanoes on this plate that have been active in roughly the past 12,000 years. The most recent eruptions on record:
- Fernandina Ecuador, 2024
- Wolf Ecuador, 2022
- Negra, Sierra Ecuador, 2018
- Azul, Cerro Ecuador, 2008
- Galapagos Rift at 86°W Ecuador, 1996
- Alcedo Ecuador, 1993
Where the edges are blurred
Parts of this plate lie in the Peru and Puna-Sierras Pampeanas zones, which the model marks as broad belts of deformation rather than sharp plate edges. There the motion between plates is spread over many faults, and a single boundary line is a simplification.
Sources
Outline, area, boundary types and motion: Bird, P. (2003), An updated digital model of plate boundaries, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 4(3), 1027, doi:10.1029/2001GC000252. Released by its author into the public domain (CC0 1.0). Areas are the model’s published figures; speeds, directions, boundary lengths and countries are calculated from its outlines, boundary steps and rotation poles.
Volcanoes: Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution, Volcanoes of the World (v. 5.4.0). Country outlines: Natural Earth.