Q.Which one of the following is not a minor plate?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Antarctica is a major plate, not a minor one, so the correct answer is (d) Antarctica.
The Earth’s lithosphere is not one unbroken shell. It is cracked into a mosaic of rigid slabs that glide over the semi-molten asthenosphere beneath. Geologists sort these slabs into two broad groups: major plates, which carry continents and vast ocean floors, and minor plates, which are smaller fragments squeezed between the giants. The distinction is not about importance — it is about size and the role each plays in the global jigsaw of plate tectonics.
The Nazca plate sits off the west coast of South America, diving beneath the continent and raising the Andes. The Arabia plate carries the Arabian Peninsula and is pushing into Eurasia, crumpling the Zagros Mountains. The Philippines plate is a compact slab in the western Pacific, caught between the Pacific and Eurasian plates, and it is responsible for the intense seismic activity around the Philippine archipelago. All three are classic minor plates — small, mobile, and geologically restless.
Antarctica, by contrast, is one of the seven major plates. It carries an entire continent and a surrounding expanse of ocean floor, making it comparable in scale to the Pacific, North American, or African plates. Its boundaries run along the mid-ocean ridges that encircle the continent, and it moves as a single, coherent unit. Because it is a major plate, it does not belong on a list of minor plates. …
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