Ball M M, Harrison C G
Science. 1970 Feb 20;167(3921):1128-9. doi: 10.1126/science.167.3921.1128.
Various people have proposed that North and South America are a part of a gigantic crustal plate within which little differential movement is taking place. Considerations of the size of this postulated plate and the pattern of seismicity around the Caribbean indicate that it is in fact two plates, separated in the region between the Lesser Antilles and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Many of the offsets of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge opposite the Caribbean are the result of differential spreading rates and the westward continuations of the fracture zones extending from these offsets are active left-lateral faults.
不同的人提出，北美洲和南美洲是一个巨大地壳板块的一部分，在这个板块内几乎没有差异运动。对这个假定板块大小以及加勒比海周围地震活动模式的考量表明，它实际上是两个板块，在小安的列斯群岛和大西洋中脊之间的区域分开。加勒比海对面大西洋中脊的许多偏移是差异扩张速率的结果，从这些偏移延伸出的断裂带向西延续部分是活跃的左旋断层。
