Malpelo plate

{{Short description|A small tectonic plate off the coast west of Ecuador and Colombia}}

{{Infobox tectonic plate

| image = Coiba & Malpelo Plates and major seismic faults of Colombia.jpg

| alt = The Malpelo plate

| caption = Malpelo plate in purple, Coiba plate in dark red
PTF in red, CTF in green

| type = Micro

| coordinates = {{Coord|03|14|N|81|14|W|display=inline,title}}

| area =

| move_direction = East

| move_speed =

| geo_features = Bordering:
Coiba plate (north)
North Andes plate (east)
Nazca plate (south)
Cocos plate (west)
Basins:
Chocó Offshore Basin
Colombian Deep Pacific Basin

}}

The Malpelo plate is a small tectonic plate (microplate) located off the coasts west of Ecuador and Colombia. It is the 57th plate to be identified. It is named after Malpelo Island, the only emerged part of the plate. It is bounded on the west by the Cocos plate, on the south by the Nazca plate, on the east by the North Andes Plate, and on the north by the Coiba plate, separated by the Coiba transform fault (CTF). This microplate was previously assumed to be part of the Nazca plate. The Malpelo plate borders three major faults of Pacific Colombia, the north to south striking Bahía Solano Fault in the north and the Naya-Micay and Remolino-El Charco Faults in the south.

Description

The Malpelo plate was hypothesised in 2013 Herrera Cala, 2013, p.69 and identified by a non-closure of the Nazca–Cocos–Pacific plate motion circuit, in a paper published in 2017.Zhang et al., 2017 The formation of the oceanic crust of the plate has been estimated to be since the Middle Miocene (14.7 Ma).Meschede & Barckhausen, 2000, p.4

The researchers used a Columbia University database of multibeam sonar soundings west of Ecuador and Colombia to identify a diffuse plate boundary that runs from the Panama transform fault (PTF) eastward to where the boundary intersects a deep oceanic trench just offshore of the South American coast, north of the Galapagos Islands.

Gallery

File:NazcaPlate.png|Former plate boundaries in the Pacific, offshore western South America

File:Mapa de Amenaza Sísmica de Colombia.png|Seismic activity map of Colombia

File:IslaMalpelo.png|Map of Malpelo Island, namesake of the plate

File:Malpelo island NOAA.jpg|Malpelo Island, the only emerged section of the plate

References

= Bibliography =

{{citation |last=Herrera Cala |first=Francys Daniela |year=2013 |title=Correlación de eventos sísmicos con la temperatura ambiental, en el área metropolitana de Bucaramanga |url=http://biblioteca.upbbga.edu.co/docs/digital_25012.pdf |publisher=Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana |pages=1–167 |accessdate=2017-09-01}}
{{citation |last1=Meschede |first1=Martin |last2=Barckhausen |first2=Udo |year=2000 |title=Plate tectonic evolution of the Cocos-Nazca spreading center |url=http://pages.mtu.edu/~raman/papers2/SR170_07.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results |volume=170 |pages=1–10 |accessdate=2017-09-01}}
{{citation |last1=Zhang |first1=Tuo |last2=Gordon |first2=Richard G. |last3=Mishra |first3=Jay K. |last4=Wang |first4=Chengzu |year=2017 |title=The Malpelo Plate Hypothesis and implications for nonclosure of the Cocos-Nazca-Pacific plate motion circuit |url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL073704/full |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=44 |issue=16 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1002/2017GL073704 |bibcode=2017GeoRL..44.8213Z |accessdate=2017-09-01}}