tectonic plate is the type of plate boundary that separates the pacific plate from the north american plate.
what type of plate boundary separates the pacific plate from the north american plate?
tectonic plate
the eastern boundary of the explorer plate is being subducted under the north american plate. the southern boundary is a collection of transform faults, the sovanco fracture zone, separating the explorer plate from the pacific plate. to the southeast is another transform boundary, the nootka fault, which separates the explorer plate from the juan de fuca plate and forms a triple junction with the north american plate. to the northwest is a divergent boundary with the pacific plate forming the explorer ridge, and the winona basin located within the northwest boundaries and the pacific continental shelf. the queen charlotte triple junction is located where the pacific plate and north american plate meets with the explorer plate.
explorer plate
the relative plate motions of this region have been difficult to determine due to the complicated nature of the pacific, juan de fuca and explorer plate triple junction vector triangle not being understood. the juan de fuca plate, created at the spreading ridge southwest of the triple junction is moving at a rate of 45.7 mm/yr at an azimuth of 244˚ in relation to the north american plate, and the pacific plate is moving at 58.6 mm/yr in relation to the juan de fuca plate. it has been proposed as well that the explorer plate which makes up one of the three points of the junction is an ephemeral (short lived) plate that behaved independently for a brief period. around 4 ma it rapidly evolved and culminated as a new transform plate boundary. on the east it is becoming coupled with north america, while the western side becomes part of the pacific plate. earthquakes also occur due to the separating of the pacific and north american plates along the queen charlotte basin. seismic recording studies have been made in the region with the two most active regions being the immediate area surrounding the dellwood knolls and the dellwood-revere fracture zone (refer to fig.1). the magnitudes ranged from 0.2–3.2 in 76 events over the course of the 15-day study; however, magnitudes in the region have gone up to a magnitude 6.4 within the last 5 years. using the locations of these epicentres it is possible to map the pacific plate boundary along the dellwood valley where the concentrations of events occur.
queen charlotte triple junction