Plate Tectonics in Brazil

Brazil is located on the South American Plate. The South American plate is a relatively large sized plate located below the continent, South America. The South American plate is bounded by African plate in the east, Nazca plate in the west, Antarctic plate and Scotia plate in the south and Caribbean plate and North American plate in the north. The Nazca plate has converged with South America over the past 70 million years. The relative motion varies, the fastest being 100mm/year and the slowest would be 50-55mm/year. South American plate and Nazca plates share the longest convergent boundary on earth, featuring Andes Mountains which extend over 7000 km. Nazca plates melt subduct below the South American plate, causing crustal dilation which then uses the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks to compress and form fold and thrust belt. Andes Mountains is current a home to more than 200 potentially active volcanoes as Nazca plate and South American plate still continue to converge. Active volcanoes are more likely to occur in convergence boundaries with a relatively steep angle of subduction. Flat slab subduction occurs in South American plate and Nazca plates and as a result four Andean Volcanic Belts form (Nothern Volcanic Zone, Central Volcanic Zone, Southern Volcanic Zone and Austral Volcanic Zone).