EarthMapped Largest plate
World map of the 7 largest tectonic plates, ranked by area2. AFRICAN3. ANTARCTIC6. AUSTRALIAN5. EURASIAN4. NORTH AMERICAN7. SOUTH AMERICAN1. PACIFIC

Largest Tectonic Plate

The Pacific Plate is the largest tectonic plate, at 104.6 million km², about 20.5% of Earth's surface.

Data source: PB2002 plate model, Bird (2003), converted by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0. Download: CSV .

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Tectonic plates ranked by area

Areas are measured on a sphere from the PB2002 plate outlines. The 7 largest, Pacific Plate, African Plate, Antarctic Plate, North American Plate, Eurasian Plate, Australian Plate and South American Plate, are colored on the map. Sort the table by any column.

Tectonic plates by area, PB2002
RankPlateArea (million km²)Share of EarthNeighborsBoundary (km)
1 Pacific 104.59 20.5% 23 48,340
2 African 58.48 11.5% 8 41,815
3 Antarctic 58.15 11.4% 10 40,298
4 North American 55.43 10.9% 9 34,373
5 Eurasian 48.56 9.5% 11 41,578
6 Australian 45.99 9% 18 36,901
7 South American 41.83 8.2% 9 35,550
8 Somali 19.15 3.8% 5 23,464
9 Nazca 16.10 3.2% 10 20,154
10 Indian 12.44 2.4% 5 17,119
11 Sunda 8.92 1.7% 9 14,029
12 Philippine Sea 5.44 1.1% 9 11,281
13 Amur 5.30 1% 5 10,625
14 Arabian 4.90 1% 5 10,644
15 Okhotsk 3.04 0.6% 5 9,460
16 Caribbean 2.96 0.6% 5 8,999
17 Cocos 2.93 0.6% 7 8,087
18 Yangtze 2.20 0.4% 5 7,134
19 Scotia 1.70 0.3% 4 7,723
20 Caroline 1.53 0.3% 5 5,302
21 North Andes 0.97 0.2% 4 5,369
22 Altiplano 0.83 0.2% 2 3,858
23 Banda Sea 0.70 0.1% 5 4,967
24 New Hebrides 0.64 0.1% 4 3,512
25 Anatolia 0.58 0.1% 4 3,345
26 Birds Head 0.53 0.1% 8 3,581
27 Burma 0.51 0.1% 4 4,033
28 Kermadec 0.51 0.1% 3 4,777
29 Woodlark 0.45 0.1% 8 5,061
30 Mariana 0.42 0.1% 2 3,549
31 Molucca Sea 0.42 0.1% 3 3,269
32 North Bismarck 0.39 0.1% 6 3,839
33 Timor 0.35 0.1% 3 3,248
34 Okinawa 0.32 0.1% 3 3,386
35 Aegean Sea 0.32 0.1% 3 2,357
36 South Bismarck 0.31 0.1% 4 2,786
37 Panama 0.27 0.1% 4 2,595
38 Juan de Fuca 0.26 0.1% 2 3,313
39 Tonga 0.25 0% 4 2,747
40 Balmoral Reef 0.20 0% 4 2,131
41 Sandwich 0.18 0% 3 1,825
42 Easter 0.17 0% 2 1,782
43 Conway Reef 0.14 0% 3 1,860
44 Solomon Sea 0.13 0% 4 1,775
45 Niuafo'ou 0.12 0% 4 1,769
46 Maoke 0.12 0% 3 1,648
47 Rivera 0.10 0% 3 1,484
48 Juan Fernandez 0.10 0% 3 1,237
49 Shetland 0.07 0% 2 1,236
50 Futuna 0.03 0% 3 921
51 Galapagos 0.01 0% 3 577
52 Manus 0.01 0% 2 415

Data source: PB2002 plate model, Bird (2003), converted by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0. Download: CSV .

Key facts

  1. The Pacific covers 104.6 million km², 1.8 times the area of the second largest, the African.
  2. The 7 largest plates together cover 81% of Earth's surface.
  3. The Antarctic is third, at 58.2 million km².
  4. The Pacific touches 23 other plates along 48,340 km of boundary.
  5. USGS names the Pacific and Antarctic plates among the largest, and notes that plates range from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across. USGS, What is a tectonic plate?

See how many tectonic plates there are, the full list of plates, or the tectonic plates map.

Largest tectonic plate FAQ

What is the largest tectonic plate?
The Pacific Plate is the largest tectonic plate, at 104.6 million km², about 20.5% of Earth's surface.
What are the largest tectonic plates in order?
By area in PB2002: 1. Pacific Plate (104.6 million km²), 2. African Plate (58.5 million km²), 3. Antarctic Plate (58.2 million km²), 4. North American Plate (55.4 million km²), 5. Eurasian Plate (48.6 million km²), 6. Australian Plate (46.0 million km²), 7. South American Plate (41.8 million km²).
Which countries are on the Pacific Plate?
Countries with at least 10% of their land on it: New Zealand and Solomon Is..
What is the smallest tectonic plate?
In PB2002 it is the Manus Plate. See how many tectonic plates there are for all 32 microplates.

Sources: Bird (2003) for plate outlines; USGS, What is a tectonic plate?.