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Glite Dictionary
🪛 A lower layer 🌎 A small plate 🧠 A neuron layer
subplate

subplate

8.1
A small part of Earth's crust under a larger plate that can cause local earthquakes
  • noun
  • /ˈsʌbˌpleɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : subplaca
  • The Sinai subplate is a smaller fragment of the Arabian plate that influences the region's seismic activity.

Examples

  • Later activity at the boundary between the Sinai subplate and the Arabian plate caused major upheavals of the seabed; between the two plates, a block of crust sank, forming a valley known as a graben.

    Academic text (2003)

  • For 20 million years, the floor of the Red Sea has been spreading apart, and the Arabian plate has been pivoting northward with respect to the Sinai subplate and its parent, the African plate (right).

    Academic text (2003)

  • The tectonic forces on the Arabian plate and the Sinai subplate are pulling in slightly different directions and at different rates, creating what geologists call a transform fault; see diagram at right on page 47.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Geologists study the interactions between the Eurasian plate and its associated subplate to better understand tectonic movements.

  • The volcanic activity observed in the region is linked to the movement of the subplate beneath the larger tectonic plate.

Synonyms

microplate
vssubplate
  • Specialized
8.8

A small part of the Earth's outer layer that moves on its own

is part of a larger plate and does not move independently

How Big

microplate
  • Specialized
8.8
subplate
  • Specialized
8.1

Surface Forms

subplate singular
subplates plural

Morphology

subplate = plate (semi-transparent) = sub + plate

Formally 'sub-' + 'plate' is clear, but the geological sense is technical and not fully inferable by general learners from the components alone.

Etymology

Subplate is made of sub- 'under' and plate 'flat layer', the same parts you see in submarine and a 'dinner plate'. So in geology a subplate is a smaller plate under a larger tectonic plate that can affect local earthquakes and land movement.