What Are Tectonic Plates?
4. Major and Minor Plates
Earth is covered by 17 plates in total and these are broken down into seven major plates and ten minor plates. The major plates are the Indo-Australian plate, the Pacific plate, the Eurasian plate, the North American plate, the Antarctic plate, the African plate, and the South American plate.
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The largest of all the plates is the Pacific Plate, which covers an area of approximately 103,300,000 square kilometers. As the name suggests, this plate makes up the seabed of the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the tectonic plates is the New Hebrides plate, which covers an area of 1,100,000 square kilometers.
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