[3] This young plate is 5.25 million years old and is considered a microplate because it is small with an area of approximately 160,000 square kilometres (62,000 sq mi).

[4] Seafloor spreading along the Easter microplate's borders have some of the highest global rates, ranging from 50 to 140 millimetres (2.0 to 5.5 in)/yr.

[5] From the 1970s to 1990s, multiple efforts were made to collect data on the area, including several magnetic and gravitational anomaly surveys.

These surveys show that Easter plate is uniquely shallow, bordered by spreading centers and transform boundaries, with triple junctions located at the southern and northern tip.

[5] The northern border has wide ridges, greater than 1 km tall, linked side-by-side with the steeper slopes to the south.

[5] This triple junction is a stable rift-fracture-fracture zone with anomalous earthquakes occurring to the northeast portion, indicating a possible second spreading axis.

[2] The southwest consists of one slower spreading center (50 to 90 millimetres (2.0 to 3.5 in)/yr) that runs northwest to southeast until joining the southern transform boundary.

[5] A single transform fault runs west to east and is home to the most rugged and shallow terrain with high seismic activity.

[2] The Easter microplate grew at a slower rate in the east–west dimension during this period, as it stopped growing north–south due to the cessation of east rift propagation.

[7] Divergence of the Nazca and Pacific plates generate a pulling force acting on the Easter microplate, causing its rotation.

Two types of driving forces are believed to act on the Nazca-Pacific plate divergence: shear and tension.

Shear driving forces occur along the north and south boundaries, which explain failures due to compression in the northern end of the plate.

represents a quantification of the total resisting force that the ductile asthenosphere applies to the brittle lithosphere floating on top.