Okinawa Plate
Encyclopedia
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
to the southern tip of the island of Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
. To the east lies the Ryukyu Trench
Ryukyu Trench
The Ryukyu Trench is a 2,250 kilometer long oceanic trench along the southeastern edge of Japan's Ryukyu Islands in the Philippine Sea in the Pacific Ocean. It is located between northeastern Taiwan and southern Japan...
and the Pacific Plate
Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....
. It is separated from the Yangtze Plate
Yangtze Plate
The Yangtze Plate, also called the South China Block or the South China Subplate, comprises the bulk of southern China. It is separated on the east from the Okinawa Plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a Back arc basin, on the south by the Sunda Plate and the Philippine Sea...
(often considered part of the Eurasian Plate
Eurasian Plate
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia...
) by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough
Okinawa Trough
The is a seabed feature of the East China Sea. It is an active, initial back-arc rifting basin which has formed behind the Ryukyu arc-trench system in the West Pacific. It developed where the Philippine Sea Plate is subducting under the Eurasia Plate....
which is a Back arc basin.