Plate tectonics
Part of Hall of Planet Earth.
Plate tectonics has emerged as one of the grand unifying theories of geology. It connects seemingly unrelated features and events of the planet — its continents and oceans, its mountains, its volcanoes and earthquakes — to a single global process. That process is the slow movement of plates on the Earth’s surface. These rigid plates are continually being formed, altered, and consumed. They move on the mantle below and carry the continents along with them.
In This Section
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Earthquakes and plate tectonics
Most earthquakes occur at plate boundaries. Where plates spread apart, earthquakes are shallow and small.
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Earthquakes and the Earth's internal structure
Seismologists study shock, or seismic, waves as they travel through the Earth’s interior.
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Circulating Heat
Deep beneath our feet is a 2,900-kilometer-thick (1,800-mile) layer of mostly solid rock called the mantle.
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The Old Red Sandstone
Matching belts of sedimentary rock, known as the Old Red Sandstone, are found in Scandinavia, the UK, and east North America.
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When plates move past each other
When oceanic or continental plates slide past each other a transform fault boundary is formed.
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Where plates separate
Plates move apart from each other along divergent boundaries.
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Where plates collide
The most geologically active regions on Earth are where plates collide.