plate

References

Images & Videos

Figure 2: The movement of tectonic plates across the Earth's surface.

cross section of a tectonic plate

Cross-sectional diagram showing three tectonic plates at ocean ridges, transform faults, and a subduction zone. The image illustrates rising magma forming rift and subduction volcanoes, convection currents in the mantle, and features such as ocean trenches, extinct and hot-spot volcanoes, and the movement of plates above a molten core and low-velocity mantle layer.

World map showing the principal tectonic plates that make up Earth's lithosphere, with plate boundaries outlined in red and major plates labeled, including the Pacific, North American, South American, African, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, Antarctic, Nazca, Cocos, and Caribbean plates. Triangles mark notable geological features such as volcanoes along plate boundaries.

The Earth's crust is a jigsaw puzzle of huge rigid plates in constant relative motion. The plates are bounded by three types of features: ridge axes, where new seafloor is created in mid-ocean; transform faults, where plates slide past one another; and subduction zones, where plates overlap, with one plate sliding under the other.

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plate

geology

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The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Learn about this topic in these articles:

Earth
The outer shell
…major separate rigid blocks, or plates. There are two types of plates, oceanic and continental. An example of an oceanic plate is the Pacific Plate, which extends from the East Pacific Rise to the deep-sea trenches bordering the western part of the Pacific basin. A continental plate is exemplified by…
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…major separate rigid blocks, or plates. There are two types of plates, oceanic and continental. An example of an oceanic plate is the Pacific Plate, which extends from the East Pacific Rise to the deep-sea trenches bordering the western part of the Pacific basin. A continental plate is exemplified by…
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crust–mantle model
…or possibly even 10, large plates of lithospheric material constantly moving with respect to each other; they are thought to be created from the asthenosphere at one edge, the ocean ridges, and to move away from these ridges to be reabsorbed back into the asthenosphere at the other edge, the…
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…or possibly even 10, large plates of lithospheric material constantly moving with respect to each other; they are thought to be created from the asthenosphere at one edge, the ocean ridges, and to move away from these ridges to be reabsorbed back into the asthenosphere at the other edge, the…
Read More

North America
General considerations
…ridges to subduction zones includes plates of rock up to 60 miles (100 km) thick. This rigid outer shell of the Earth is called the lithosphere, as distinct from the underlying hotter and more fluid asthenosphere. The portions of lithospheric plates descending into the asthenosphere at subduction zones are called…
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…ridges to subduction zones includes plates of rock up to 60 miles (100 km) thick. This rigid outer shell of the Earth is called the lithosphere, as distinct from the underlying hotter and more fluid asthenosphere. The portions of lithospheric plates descending into the asthenosphere at subduction zones are called…
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How Do Tectonic Plates Move?
…believe that the movement of plates is caused by the convection currents within the planet’s mantle. As heat in the Earth’s interior rises, it causes the mantle’s material to move in a circular pattern. This movement is likely what drives the tectonic plates, which sit on top of the mantle,…
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…believe that the movement of plates is caused by the convection currents within the planet’s mantle. As heat in the Earth’s interior rises, it causes the mantle’s material to move in a circular pattern. This movement is likely what drives the tectonic plates, which sit on top of the mantle,…
Read More