Portugal is located on the Southern region of the Eurasian plate, almost bordering the African Plate. The Eurasian Plate is a divergent plate which means the plate boundaries are moving apart which is caused by seafloor spreading or rift valleys. As plates made of oceanic crust pull apart, a crack in the ocean floor appears. Magma then oozes up from the mantle to fill in the space between the plates, forming a raised ridge called a mid-ocean ridge.
http://geology.com/plate-tectonics.shtml http://geology.com/nsta/divergent-plate-boundaries.shtml
http://geology.com/plate-tectonics.shtml http://geology.com/nsta/divergent-plate-boundaries.shtml
You're right Portugal is part of the Eurasian plate. This big plate has a divergent boundary in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, against the N American plate; but careful, a plate is not a plate boundary.....The Eurasian plate has another boundary to the south [against the African plate] that is a convergent one, and around there, there is a complex tectonic setting...So, I am guessing, as Portugal is closer to this south boundary than to the divergent one on the West, that it will be this one the one that most affects Portugal activity...you'll see next week where the main quakes are....
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/06/tectonic-plate-movement.jpg
https://www.livescience.com/37418-subduction-zone-forming-off-spain.html
https://www.livescience.com/37706-what-is-plate-tectonics.html
Hello Taylor,
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see that Portugal is a part of the Eurasian plate as my country is also part of the Eurasian plate. I like how you added a description of what the divergent boundary is and what it causes the ocean floor to do/form. Nice post!
Hey Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you went into dept about what the plate that your country is on does, my country is also part of the Eurasian plate but its also next to the Indian plate.