North American Plate

The North American Plate encompasses the North American continent, Greenland, and extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Its western boundary is marked by the famous San Andreas Fault system in California, where it slides past the Pacific Plate. The plate's divergent boundary with the Eurasian Plate at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is actively creating new oceanic crust, slowly widening the Atlantic Ocean at a rate of a few centimeters per year.