The Philippine Sea Plate outline
The plate occupies much of the Philippine Sea east of the Philippine islands. It extends toward southern Japan and the Mariana region, with smaller blocks represented in detailed models.
BOUNDARIES
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Plate colours identify regions, not risk.
Trenches around the plate
The Pacific Plate descends at the Izu-Bonin and Mariana trenches. On other sides, Philippine Sea lithosphere subducts beneath neighbouring regions, including along Nankai and the Philippine Trench.
Why country borders differ
The Philippines lies within a complex boundary system, not wholly within a polygon defined by its national name. Opposing subduction zones and the Philippine Fault divide movement across the archipelago.
Sources and map method
Plate outlines use Peter Bird's PB2002 model, distributed by Nordpil under the Open Data Commons Attribution licence. Coastlines and country outlines are Natural Earth public-domain data. Boundary detail is limited by the source model.
- USGS: Philippine Sea Plate and vicinity
- Bird (2003): PB2002 plate boundary model
- Map dataset sources and licences
- PB2002 geometry and licence
- Natural Earth terms
Country lookup compares simplified land outlines with the plate model. Boundaries and historical coastlines are modelled features. This atlas explains geography; it does not predict earthquakes or provide site-specific hazard estimates.