A region of lithosphere approximated as rigid on the spatial and temporal scale of a plate-kinematic model. Its instantaneous motion on a sphere is a rotation; deformation within boundary zones limits the rigid-plate approximation.
The tectonic plate containing most of North America and adjacent parts of the ocean floor.
A young oceanic tectonic plate entering the Cascadia subduction zone.
The oceanic tectonic plate subducting beneath much of western South America.
A prominent oceanic ridge on the Nazca Plate entering the Peruvian subduction zone. Its association with variations in slab dip motivates tests using seismic geometry, plate reconstructions and the thermal and compositional contributions to slab buoyancy.
A volcanic ridge system entering the South American subduction zone near central Chile, associated with the southern transition of the Pampean flat-slab region. Its crustal structure, hydration and past geometry constrain explanations of the slab dip; present-day bathymetry alone does not give the buoyancy of its already subducted continuation.

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