On Feb 10, 2006 the Zetas described the manner in which S America moves West, during continental drift, or rip as the Zetas describe it. The top part of the S American plate rolls to the West, pinned at the tip at Antartica. The Nazca plate just to the West of the S American plate and the Cocos plate that would be pushed by both toward the West, are thus pushed westward during this process.
- Look at S America, on the large S American plate. As the Atlantic is pulled apart, the Pacific compressed, it is required to have the upper part migrate to the West more than the tip, which is anchored at Antarctica. It moves as a whole, in the main, crunching the small plates in the Caribbean and Central America as it does so and popping the plate holding the Galapagos Islands which lies just to the west of S America. It can move, in short.
- ZetaTalk: N American Rip, written Feb 10, 2006
On Aug 2, 2007 an article appeared in LiveScience reporting the Cocos plate moving backwards at this point, westward, averse its normal direction. The Cocos plate is being pushed West by the motion of the S American plate, pushing the Nazca and Cocos plates!
- In Surprise, Major Earthquake Fault Slips Backward
Aug 2, 2007
- A vast chunk of Earth sliding under Mexico has surprisingly reversed direction, puzzling geologists. The offshore tectonic plate had been sliding toward Mexico City at a rate of 1 inch per year, as recorded by Global Positioning System measuring stations near Acapulco and Guerrero, which is about 175 miles southwest of Mexico City. That movement was normal, as predicted by theories of how Earth's crustal plates should move. At subduction zones, like this one, an oceanic plate typically slides beneath a continental plate. Suddenly, in the latter half of 2006, the plate began moving the other way and quadrupled its speed, scientists announced today. This is the largest such backward event so far detected. The research, detailed in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and supported by the National Autonomous University of Mexico.