Okhotsk microplate

The Okhotsk microplate[1] is a proposed minor tectonic plate covering the Kamchatka Peninsula, Magadan Oblast, and Sakhalin Island of Russia; Hokkaido, Kantō and Tōhoku regions of Japan; the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the disputed Kuril Islands.

"A slightly better fit to data is obtained" when the proposed blocks, Honshu and Okhotsk, are independent of North America, so some studies make this an assumption of their analysis.

[4][3] The Southern boundary through I-STL was proposed by Peter Bird in 2003 and places Japan on the Okhotsk Plate.

[13] GPS measurements and other studies show that the Okhotsk microplate is slowly rotating in a clockwise direction.

[14] In 2011 a Mw 9.0–9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake caused by the subduction of the Pacific plate below the Okhotsk microplate.