Scotia Plate
| Scotia Plate | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Minor |
| Approx. Area | 1,651,000 km2 (637,000 sq mi) |
| Movement1 | West |
| Speed1 | 25mm/year |
| Features | Scotia Sea, South Georgia, Drake Passage |
| 1Relative to the African Plate | |
The Scotia Plate (Spanish: Placa Scotia) is a tectonic plate on the edge of the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean. Thought to have formed during the early Eocene with the opening of the Drake Passage that separates South America from Antarctica, it is a minor plate whose movement is largely controlled by the two major plates that surround it: the South American plate and Antarctic plate.
Roughly rhomboid, extending between 50°S 70°W / 50°S 70°W and 63°S 20°W / 63°S 20°W, the plate is 800 km (500 mi) wide and 3,000 km (1,900 mi) long. It is moving WSW at 2.2 cm (0.87 in)/year and the South Sandwich Plate is moving east at 5.5 cm (2.2 in)/year in an absolute reference frame. It takes it name from the steam yacht Scotia of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902–04), the expedition that made the first bathymetric study of the region.
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