View source for Pacific plate

[[File:Plates tect2 en.svg|thumb|right|300px|{{legend|#FEE6AA|border=1px solid #000|2=The Pacific plate, shown in pale yellow}}]]
[[File:PacificPlate.png|thumb|300px|The Pacific plate]]

The '''Pacific plate''' is a [[tectonic plate]] beneath parts of the [[Pacific Ocean]].

* It is the largest tectonic plate (''103 million square kilometers'')
* It includes the [[hot spot]] which formed the [[Hawaiian Islands]]

Note the [[Ring of Fire]] zones on the ocean's edges. The oldest seafloor is destroyed by going down into the Asian oceanic trenches. The oldest part disappearing this way is [[early Cretaceous]] (145 to 137 million years ago).

All maps of the Earth's ocean floor geology show ages younger than 145 million years. This is only about 1/30 of the Earth's 4.55 billion year history.<ref>Wolfgang Frisch; Martin Meschede; Ronald C. Blakey 2010. Plate ''Tectonics: continental drift and mountain building''. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-540-76504-2</ref>

== References ==
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[[Category:Tectonic plates]]
[[Category:Pacific Ocean]]