• The oceanic Nazca Plate is being subducted under the continental South American Plate at a rate of 10 cm per year, forming the Peru-Chile Trench.
• Just north of the Nazca Plate, the oceanic Cocos Plate is being subducted under the Caribbean Plate and forms the Middle America Trench.
• The Pacific Plate is being subducted under the Eurasian and Philippine Sea Plates, the latter subduction zone forming the Mariana Trench.
• The Pacific Plate is being subducted under the North American Plate forming the Aleutian Trench.
• The Philippine Sea Plate is subducting under the Philippine Mobile Belt forming the Philippine Trench and the East Luzon Trench.
• The Eurasian Plate is subducting under the Philippine Mobile Belt at the Manila Trench.
• The Sunda Plate is subducting under the Philippine Mobile Belt at the Negros Trench and the Cotobato Trench.
• The Pacific Plate is subducting under the Indo-Australian Plate north and east of New Zealand, but as this map (109 KB jpg) illustrates, the direction of subduction reverses south of the Alpine Fault where the Indo-Australian Plate starts subducting under the Pacific Plate.
• The Cascadia subduction zone is where the oceanic Juan de Fuca, Gorda and Explorer Plates are being subducted under the continental North American plate.

Orogenic belts

• The most dramatic orogenic belt on the planet is the one between the Indo-Australian Plate and African Plate on one hand (to the South) and the Eurasian Plate on the other (to the North). This belt runs from New Zealand in the East-SouthEast, through Indonesia, along the Himalayas, through the Middle East up till the Mediterranean in the West-Northwest. It is also called the "Tethyan" Zone, as it constitutes the zone along which the ancient Tethys Ocean was deformed and disappeared. The following mountain belts can be distinguished:
  • The European Alps
  • The Carpathians
  • The Pyrenees
  • The Apennines
  • The Dinarides
  • The North African mountain belts such as the Atlas
  • The Karst Plateau of the Balkan Peninsula
  • The Caucasus
  • The Zagros
  • The Himalayas
  • The Indonesian Archipelago
  • The Southern Alps of New Zealand

• The Andes orogenic belt is the latest of a series of pre-Andean orogenies along the western margin of the South American Plate.

Transform boundaries

• The San Andreas Fault in California is an active transform boundary. The Pacific Plate (carrying the city of Los Angeles) is moving northwards with respect to the North American Plate.
• The Queen Charlotte Fault on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America
• The Motagua Fault, which crosses through Guatemala, is a transform boundary between the southern edge of the North American Plate and the northern edge of the Caribbean Plate.
• New Zealand's Alpine Fault is another active transform boundary.
• The Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault which runs through the Jordan River Valley in the Middle East.