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African Plate Facts & Worksheets

The African Plate is one of the world's major tectonic plates, hosting earthquakes, rifts, and even counterclockwise splitting.

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The African Plate is one of the world’s major tectonic plates, hosting earthquakes, rifts, and even counterclockwise splitting. The African Plate sinks beneath the Eurasian Plate, causing faults and earthquakes.

See the fact file below for more information on the African Plate, or you can download our 28-page African Plate worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

AFRICAN PLATE

  • The African Plate has experienced and continues to experience considerable energy. The African Plate is a primary tectonic plate that spans most of Africa (save the easternmost region) and has a neighboring oceanic crust to the west and south. 
  • Several nations sit atop the African Plate, and the plate borders are subject to substantial seismic activity, affecting individuals who live there. These limits resulted in a wide range of habitats, particularly in the rifts and ridges of the African Plate.
  • The African Plate is submerged beneath the Eurasian Plate. This border is located beneath Italy. It resulted in several faults in the Apennine Mountains, the movement of which has resulted in destructive earthquakes over time.
  • The African Plate is now being strained in areas, causing it to divide. A Y-shaped fracture can be seen in Northern Ethiopia. Another hotspot is when the African Plate separates from the Arabian Plate. It resulted in the formation of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
  • The African Plate is breaking into two plates along the East African Rift Valley, known as the Nubian and Somalian Plates.

BOUNDARIES

  • Two of these types of plate borders surround the African plate. The plate’s northern edge is a convergent boundary where the African plate is subducting beneath the Eurasian plate.
  • Subduction zones are convergent borders; when two plates clash, one sinks beneath the other. In this instance, the African plate is collapsing beneath the Eurasian plate.
  • The limits on the opposite sides of the African plate are all varied. Mid-ocean ridges run along the plate’s eastern, southern, and western edges. Divergent plate boundaries defined by chains of volcanoes along the seafloor define mid-ocean ridges. These volcanoes arise when the Earth’s crust is ripped apart, allowing magma to ascend to the surface and erupt on the seabed.
  • The African plate’s most intriguing aspect is that it is actively splitting apart to generate a whole new plate. The East African Rift is a stretch in the crust that results in a deep valley. This rift zone begins in Ethiopia near the Red Sea and stretches into Kenya.

AFRICAN PLATE DYNAMICS: RIFTS AND RIDGES

  • Rift valleys are long and narrow valleys formed by the movement of tectonic plate boundaries. This happens on the Earth’s surface and at the ocean’s bottom. The Great Rift Valley System, which includes the Jordan Rift Valley to the north and the East African Rift Valley to the south, is the most well-known rift on our planet.
  • The East African Rift Valley has evolved within the last 25 million years when the Nubian and Somalian plates broke from the African Plate. This massive schism spans around 3,500 kilometers. 
  • It has a lot of volcanic activity in the east, and it has a lot of lakes with deep earthquakes in the west. While the East African Rift Valley is now above sea level, it is expected to continue to diverge, enabling seawater to enter and form a new ocean.
  • The Victoria Plate is a microplate in the East African Rift System that is actively moving counterclockwise and diverging from other microplates to its south. Scientists believe this movement is caused by changes in strength along the Earth’s crust rather than by activity in the mantle underneath. Further research is required into this recent example of how Earth remains a dynamic, continually changing globe and how those changes may affect life.

COMPONENTS

  • The African Plate is formed by multiple continental crusts, solid blocks of old crust with ancient ties in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle, and less steady terranes that merged to create the African continent approximately 250 million years ago during the creation of the supercontinent Pangea.
  • The cratons are the Kalahari Craton, Congo Craton, Tanzania Craton, and West African Craton, in that order. The cratons were formerly separated, but they merged together during the Pan-African orogeny and stayed together until Gondwana split apart.
  • The craton is connected by orogenic belts, areas of severely deformed rock generated when tectonic plates clash. Although the Saharan Metacraton is assumed to be the remains of a separated craton from the subcontinental lithospheric mantle, it might be a collection of unconnected crystal chunks swept together during the Pan-African orogeny.
  • In numerous areas, sedimentary basins cover the cratons. The underlying archaic crust, for example, is overlain by more contemporary Neoproterozoic sediments in the Tindouf, Taoudeni, and Congo Basins.
  • The plate features shear zones, such as the Central African Shear Zone (CASZ), where two segments of the crust moved in different directions in the past, and rifts, such as the Ariza Trough, where the crust was torn apart, and the resulting depression was filled with more recent silt.

MODERN MOVEMENTS 

  • The African Plate is rifting in the continent’s eastern heartland along the East African Rift. This rift zone separates the African Plate from the Somali Plate to the west. One explanation suggests the possibility of a mantle plume under the Afar area, while another contends that the rifting is simply a zone of maximal weakness where the African Plate is deforming while plates to its east distort.
  • The African Plate moves at a rate of around 2.15 cm (0.85 in) every year. It has been traveling in a broad northeast direction for the last 100 million years or so. This is moving it closer to the Eurasian Plate, which will result in subduction when the oceanic crust collides with continental rock (e.g., portions of the central and eastern Mediterranean).
  • The relative movements of the Eurasian and African plates in the western Mediterranean create a mix of lateral and compressive pressures, which are centered in the Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zone.
  • The African Plate is bordered to the northeast by the Red Sea Rift, caused by the Arabian Plate sliding away from the African Plate. The New England hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean has most likely formed a short connection to mid to late-Tertiary age seamounts on the African Plate, but it appears to be inactive now.

African Plate Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about the African Plate across 28 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about the African Plate. The African Plate is one of the world’s major tectonic plates, hosting earthquakes, rifts, and even counterclockwise splitting. The African Plate sinks beneath the Eurasian Plate, causing faults and earthquakes.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. African Plate Facts
  2. So Much on my Plate!
  3. Com-PLATE Me!
  4. Name-PLATES!
  5. Com-PLATEly Puzzled
  6. Know Your Boundaries
  7. We’re Splitting Up
  8. East-African Rift Crossword
  9. PLATES Search for Me
  10. Mission Accom-PLATE!
  11. Contem-PLATE

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the African plate?

The African plate is one of the major tectonic plates on Earth’s surface. It is located mainly in the African continent, but it also extends into the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

How big is the African plate?

The African plate covers an area of about 61 million square kilometers, making it the third-largest tectonic plate after the Pacific and the Eurasian plates.

What are the major tectonic features associated with the African plate?

The African plate is associated with several major tectonic features, including the East African Rift System, the Red Sea Rift, and the Atlas Mountains. It is also responsible for the formation of the African Plateau, which covers much of eastern and southern Africa.

What are the geological hazards associated with the African plate?

The African plate is associated with several geological hazards, hosting earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides. The East African Rift System, in particular, is known for its frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.

How has the African plate influenced human history?

The African plate has played a significant role in shaping the geology and geography of the African continent, which in turn has influenced human history. For example, the Great Rift Valley, which is part of the East African Rift System, is believed to be the birthplace of human civilization. The Atlas Mountains have also influenced the cultural and political history of North Africa, while the mineral resources associated with the African Plate have contributed to the continent’s economic development.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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