The North American Plate is a tectonic plate containing most of North America,

Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores.
With an area of 76 million km2 (29 million sq mi), it is the Earth's second largest
tectonic plate, behind the Pacific Plate (which borders the plate to the west).
It extends eastward to the seismically active Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the Azores
Triple Junction plate boundary where it meets the Eurasian Plate and Nubian Plate.
[2][3] and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes
both continental and oceanic crust. The interior of the main continental landmass
includes an extensive granitic core called a craton. Along most of the edges of
this craton are fragments of crustal material called terranes, which are accreted
to the craton by tectonic actions over a long span of time. It is thought that much
of North America west of the Rocky Mountains is composed of such terranes.
Boundaries
The southern boundary with the Cocos Plate to the west and the Caribbean Plate to
the east is a transform fault, represented by the Swan Islands Transform Fault
under the Caribbean Sea and the Motagua Fault through Guatemala. The parallel
Septentrional and Enriquillo–Plantain Garden faults, which run through Hispaniola
and bound the Gonâve Microplate, are also a part of the boundary. The rest of the
southerly margin which extends east to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and marks the
boundary between the North American Plate and the South American Plate is vague but
located near the Fifteen-Twenty Fracture Zone around 16°N.
On the northerly boundary is a continuation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge called the
Gakkel Ridge. The rest of the boundary in the far northwestern part of the plate
extends into Siberia. This boundary continues from the end of the Gakkel Ridge as
the Laptev Sea Rift, on to a transitional deformation zone in the Chersky Range,
then the Ulakhan Fault between it and the Okhotsk Plate, and finally the Aleutian
Trench to the end of the Queen Charlotte Fault system (see also: Aleutian Arc).
The westerly boundary is the Queen Charlotte Fault running offshore along the coast
of Alaska and the Cascadia subduction zone to the north, the San Andreas Fault
through California, the East Pacific Rise in the Gulf of California, and the Middle
America Trench to the south.
On its western edge, the Farallon Plate has been subducting under the North
American Plate since the Jurassic period. The Farallon Plate has almost completely
subducted beneath the western portion of the North American Plate, leaving that
part of the North American Plate in contact with the Pacific Plate as the San
Andreas Fault. The Juan de Fuca, Explorer, Gorda, Rivera, Cocos and Nazca plates
are remnants of the Farallon Plate. The boundary along the Gulf of California is
complex. The gulf is underlain by the Gulf of California Rift Zone, a series of
rift basins and transform fault segments from the northern end of the East Pacific
Rise in the mouth of the gulf to the San Andreas Fault system in the vicinity of
the Salton Trough rift/Brawley seismic zone.[4][5] It is generally accepted that a
piece of the North American Plate was broken off and transported north as the East
Pacific Rise propagated northward, creating the Gulf of California. However, it is
as yet unclear whether the oceanic crust between the rise and the mainland coast of
Mexico is actually a new plate beginning to converge with the North American Plate,
consistent with the standard model of rift zone spreading centers generally.
[citation needed]
Hotspots
A few hotspots are thought to exist below the North American Plate. The most
notable hotspots are the Yellowstone (Wyoming), Jemez Lineament (New Mexico), and
Anahim (British Columbia) hotspots. These are thought to be caused by a narrow
stream of hot mantle convecting up from the Earth's core–mantle boundary called a
mantle plume,[6] although some geologists think that upper mantle convection is a
more likely cause.[7][8] The Yellowstone and Anahim hotspots are thought to have
first arrived during the Miocene period and are still geologically active, creating
earthquakes and volcanoes. The Yellowstone hotspot is most notable for the
Yellowstone Caldera and the many calderas that lie in the Snake River Plain, while
the Anahim hotspot is most notable for the Anahim Volcanic Belt in the Nazko Cone
area.
Plate motion
For the most part, the North American Plate moves in roughly a southwest direction
away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a rate of about 2.3 centimeters (~1 inch) per
year. At the same time, the Pacific Plate is moving to the northwest at a speed of
between 7 and 11 centimeters (~3-4 inches) per year. The motion of the plate cannot
be driven by subduction as no part of the North American Plate is being subducted,
except for a small section comprising part of the Puerto Rico Trench; thus other
mechanisms continue to be investigated. One study in 2007 suggests that a mantle
convective current is propelling the plate.