High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Juan de Fuca Plate, named after the explorer of the same name, is a tectonic plate, generated from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and subducting under the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone. It is bounded on the south by the Blanco Fracture Zone (running northeast off the coast of Oregon, USA), on the north by the Nootka Fault (running southwest off Nootka Island, near Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada), and along the west by the Pacific Plate (which covers most of the Pacific Ocean and is the largest of Earth`s tectonic plates).