Earth Introduction 

Currently, the surface of Earth has eight major plates:

1. North American Plate - North America, western North Atlantic and Greenland
2. South American Plate - South America and western South Atlantic
3. Antarctic Plate - Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
4. Eurasian Plate - eastern North Atlantic, Europe and Asia except for India
5. African Plate - Africa, eastern South Atlantic and western Indian Ocean
6. Indian-Australian Plate - India, Australia, New Zealand and most of Indian Ocean
7. Nazca Plate - eastern Pacific Ocean adjacent to South America
8. Pacific Plate - most of the Pacific Ocean (and the southern coast of California!)

In addition to the eight major plates, twenty smaller plates are present including the Arabian and Philippine Plates. Earthquakes occur most frequently at the boundaries of plates due to the friction and contact between them. Thus, faults as they are dubbed are placed in which Earthquakes abound.