Unlike most tectonic plates, the Gorda Plate experiences significant deformation inside its boundaries.

The fault section demarcates the boundary between the northwestward-moving Pacific Plate and the eastward-moving Gorda Plate.

The Gorda Plate is subducting beneath the North American Plate just offshore of Cape Mendocino.

To the north lies the Cascadia subduction zone, where the Gorda Plate is being subducted under the margin of the North American plate.

Running west from the triple junction is the Mendocino Fault, the transform boundary between the Gorda Plate and the Pacific Plate.

The subducting Gorda Plate is connected with the volcanoes in northern California, namely, Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak.

Another transform fault, the Mendocino Fault (F), runs along the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Gorda Plate.

The subduction zone separates the Juan de Fuca Plate, Explorer Plate, Gorda Plate and North American Plates.

The North American Plate, Pacific Plate, and Gorda Plates are tectonic plates that all meet at the Cape Mendocino, only southwest of the parks.

The Gorda Plate, located beneath the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern California, is one of the northern remnants of the Farallon Plate.

The source of heat for volcanism in the Lassen area is subduction off the Northern California coast of the Gorda Plate diving below the North American Plate.

The small Juan de Fuca Plate and two platelets, the Explorer Plate and Gorda Plate are the meager remnants of the much larger Farallon oceanic plate.

The three fragments are differentiated as such : the piece to the south is known as the Gorda Plate and the piece to the north is known as the Explorer Plate.

Saturday's earthquake took place on land where the North American plate is being crunched into the southern end of the San Juan de Fuca plate, known as the Gorda plate, Dr. Oppenheimer said.

These peaks were formed during the past 35 million years while the large Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the much smaller Gorda plate to its south have been pushed underneath the overriding North American plate.

The remainder of the Farallon Plate split, with the part to the north becoming the Juan de Fuca Plate; parts of this subsequently broke off to form the Gorda Plate and Explorer Plate.

The Lost Coast consists of undivided Cretaceous marine metasedimentary and sedimentary rocks of the North American Plate steeply uplifted by Mendocino Triple Junction interactions with the Pacific Plate and Gorda Plate.

In the quiet of night I lie in bed and hear the rattle of stones tumbling down this cliff, as, far below, the North American tectonic plate strains against the Gorda plate to its north and the Pacific plate to its west.

To its east is the Gorda Plate, which together with the Juan de Fuca Plate to its north, is what remains of the once-vast Farallon Plate which has been largely subducted under the North American Plate.

The Cascade Volcanoes were formed by the subduction of the Juan de Fuca, Explorer and the Gorda Plate (remnants of the much larger Farallon Plate) under the North American Plate along the Cascadia subduction zone.

The north-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge.

The Mendocino Triple Junction is a geologic triple junction where the San Andreas Fault meets the Mendocino Fault and the Cascadia subduction zone, separating three tectonic plates: the Pacific Plate, the North American Plate and the Gorda Plate.