Okhotsk Plate
The Okhotsk Plate is the 15th-largest of the 52 plates in the PB2002 plate model, covering 3.0 million km² (1.2 million sq mi), or 0.6% of Earth’s surface. The Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and northern Japan, including Hokkaido and northeastern Honshu.
- Area
- 3.0 million km² (1.2 million sq mi)
- Share of Earth’s surface
- 0.6%
- Speed across the plate
- 2.3 to 2.6 cm a year (0.9 to 1.0 in)
- Direction at its center
- Toward the southeast
- Length of its edges
- 9,460 km (5,880 mi)
- Neighboring plates
- 5
- Edges by type
- 70% convergent · 12% divergent · 18% transform
- Volcanoes on it
- 154 active in the past ~12,000 years
What happens at its edges
The Pacific Plate sinks beneath it along the Kuril–Kamchatka and Japan trenches, one of the fastest subduction zones on Earth. This boundary produced the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and feeds the volcanoes of Kamchatka, the Kurils and northern Japan.
Many maps include this region in the North American Plate. In this model Tokyo lies on it, close to where it meets the Philippine Sea, Pacific and Amur plates.
How fast it moves, and which way
At its center (51.2°N, 149.0°E) the Okhotsk Plate moves about 2.5 cm (1.0 in) a year toward the southeast. Because a plate turns around a pole rather than sliding in a straight line, the speed changes across it: from 2.3 cm (0.9 in) a year to 2.6 cm (1.0 in) a year, with an area-weighted average of 2.5 cm a year. That average makes it the 36th 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 North American Plate instead, the Okhotsk Plate moves about 0.6 cm (0.2 in) a year toward the east-southeast at its center.
In the model it rotates about a pole at 30.2°N, 98.4°W at 0.231° 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 9,460 km (5,880 mi): 70% convergent, where plates move together; 12% divergent, where they move apart; and 18% transform, where they slide past each other. The Pacific Plate and North American Plate sink beneath it.
| Neighbor | Shared edge | Boundary types | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Plate | 3,020 km (1,870 mi) | Convergent 100% | 8.7 cm a yearup to 9.3 cm |
| North American Plate | 2,430 km (1,510 mi) | Transform 57% · Convergent 43% | 0.3 cm a yearup to 0.5 cm |
| Amur Plate | 2,300 km (1,430 mi) | Convergent 100% | 0.8 cm a yearup to 0.9 cm |
| Eurasian Plate | 1,400 km (870 mi) | Divergent 82% · Transform 18% | 0.4 cm a yearup to 0.5 cm |
| Philippine Sea Plate | 310 km (190 mi) | Convergent 85% · Transform 15% | 3.5 cm a yearup to 3.6 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 Okhotsk Plate
Each of these is split between plates. The share is the part of each country’s land on this plate.
- Russia about 4%
- Japan about 54%
Volcanoes on the Okhotsk Plate
The Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program lists 154 volcanoes on this plate that have been active in roughly the past 12,000 years. The most recent eruptions on record:
- Akan Japan, 2026
- Krasheninnikov Russia, 2026
- Sheveluch Russia, 2026
- Karymsky Russia, 2025
- Bezymianny Russia, 2025
- Klyuchevskoy Russia, 2025
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.