The African Plate and the South American Plate are moving away from each other across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

Type of boundary

  • The boundary between the African Plate and the South American Plate is a divergent plate boundary, located along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
  • At a divergent boundary, tectonic plates separate, and magma rises to create new oceanic crust between them.

Direction and speed of movement

  • Along their shared boundary, the African Plate moves generally eastward , while the South American Plate moves generally westward , so the plates separate horizontally.
  • The separation rate is only a few centimeters per year, but over millions of years this has widened the Atlantic Ocean and continues to do so today.

How we can tell

  • The matching shapes of the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa, like puzzle pieces, are classic evidence they were once joined and have since drifted apart.
  • Similar rocks and fossils found on both sides of the Atlantic support that these plates split and continue to move apart along a diverging boundary.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.