Aegean Sea Plate
A small tectonic plate in the eastern Mediterranean Sea / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Aegean Sea Plate?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Aegean Sea Plate (also called the Hellenic Plate or Aegean Plate) is a small tectonic plate located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and western Turkey. Its southern edge is the Hellenic subduction zone south of Crete, where the African Plate is being swept under the Aegean Sea Plate.[1] Its northern margin is a divergent boundary with the Eurasian Plate.
Aegean Sea Plate | |
---|---|
Type | Micro |
Movement1 | south-west |
Speed1 | 37 mm/year |
Features | Greece, Turkey, Aegean Sea |
1Relative to the African Plate |
The seafloor in this region is about 350 m below sea level, while the adjacent Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea are 1300ā1500 m deep. For this reason it is considered a high plateau between the seas.[2] Evidence suggests the Aegean Plate contains thinned continental crust, rather than oceanic crust. Since its creation the crust has been thinned through various processes, including post-orogenic collapse and crustal extension. This extension is responsible for the formation of the Gulf of Corinth.[3][4]
Previous observations of the region's motion described the crust under the Aegean Sea as a part of the Anatolian Plate, and the different directions of motion were explained as the plate rotating counterclockwise. Further measurements found that motion of the Aegean region differed from the previous model, so the two plates are now considered distinct from each other.[5]