Phoenix Plate

The Phoenix Plate was an ancient tectonic plate that existed during the mid-Cretaceous through early Tertiary time. The Phoenix Plate began subducting under the Antarctic Plate. The Pacific-Phoenix ridge, a mid-oceanic ridge between the Pacific and the Phoenix Plates which had a spreading rate of 18-20 cm per year until around 84 Ma. A major decrease in spreading rate, and the convergence rate with the Antarctic Plate occurred around 52.3 Ma.

References

• McCarron, Joe J. and Robert D. Larter, Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary subduction history of the Antarctic Peninsula, Journal of the Geological Society, March 1998