What is a plate? In geologic terms, a plate is a large, rigid slab of solid rock.

The word tectonics comes from the Greek root "to build." Putting these two words together, we get the term plate tectonics, which refers to how the Earth's surface is built of plates. The theory of plate tectonics states that the Earth's outermost layer is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small plates that are moving relative to one another as they ride atop hotter, more mobile material. Before the advent of plate tectonics, however, some people already believed that the present-day continents were the fragmented pieces of preexisting larger landmasses ("supercontinents"). Types of plate boundaries Three types of plate boundaries exist, with a fourth, mixed type, characterized by the way the plates move relative to each other. They are associated with different types of surface phenomena. The different types of plate boundaries are: 1 Transform boundaries (Conservative)occur where plates slide or, perhaps more accurately, grind past each other along transform faults. The relative motion of the two plates is either sinistral (left side toward the observer) or dextral (right side toward the observer). The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a transform boundary exhibiting dextral motion. 2 Divergent boundaries (Constructive)occur where two plates slide apart from each other. Midocean ridges (e.g., Mid-Atlantic Ridge) and active zones of rifting (such as Africa's East African Rift) are both examples of divergent boundaries. 3 Convergent boundaries (Destructive)(or active margins) occur where two plates slide towards each other commonly forming either a subduction zone (if one plate moves underneath the other) or a continental collision (if the two plates contain continental crust). Deep marine trenches are typically associated with subduction zones, and the basins that develop along the active boundary are often called "foreland basins". The subducting slab contains many hydrous minerals, which release their water on heating; this water then causes the mantle to melt, producing volcanism. Examples of this are the Andes mountain range in South America and the Japanese island arc. Primary plates These seven plates comprise the bulk of the continents and the Pacific Ocean. The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges. The Antarctic Plate is a tectonic plate containing the continent of Antarcticaand extending outward under the surrounding oceans. The Antarctic Plate is bounded almost entirely by extensional mid-ocean ridge systems. The adjoining plates are the Nazca Plate, the South American Plate, the African Plate, theIndoAustralian Plate, the Pacific Plate, and, across a transform boundary, theScotia Plate. The Antarctic plate is roughly 60,900,000 square kilometers.[1] It is the fifth biggest plate in the world. The Antarctic plate movement is estimated at least 1 centimeter/per year towards the Atlantic Ocean. The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent ofEurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe andAsia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia. It also includes oceanic crust extending westward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and northward to the Gakkel Ridge. The eastern side is a boundary with the North American Plate to the north and a boundary with the Philippine Sea Plate to the south, and possibly with theOkhotsk Plate and the Amurian Plate. The

southerly side is a boundary with theAfrican Plate to the west, the Arabian Plate in the middle and the Indo-Australian Plate to the east. The westerly side is a divergent boundary with the North American Plate forming the northernmost part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is straddled by Iceland. The 1973 eruption of Eldfell, the volcano of the Icelandic island Heimaey, caused by the North American and the Eurasian plates moving apart, is a result of divergent plate boundary forces. The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and surrounding ocean, and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of Indian and Australian plates 43 million years ago.[1] Recent studies, and seismic events such as the 2012 Indian Ocean earthquake, suggest that the Indo-Australian Plate may be in the process of breaking up into two separate plates due primarily to stresses induced by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate with Eurasia along the Himalayas.[2] The eastern part (Australia) is moving northward at the rate of 5.6 cm per year while the western part (India) is moving only at the rate of 3.7 cm per year due to impediment by Himalayas. This differential movement is resulting in the compression of the plate near its center at Sumatra and a potential division into Indian and Australian Plates.[3][4][5] The two protoplates or subplates are generally referred to as the Indian Plate and theAustralian Plate. A third Capricorn Plate may also be separating off of the west side of the Indian subplate.[6] The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most ofNorth America, Greenland, Cuba, Bahamas, and parts of Icelandand the Azores. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes both continental and oceanic crust. The interior of the main continental landmass includes an extensive granitic core called a craton. Along most of the edges of this craton are fragments of crustal material called terranes, accreted to the craton by tectonic actions over the long span of geologic time. It is believed that much of North America west of the Rockies is composed of such terranes. The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate.[1] The north-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, theJuan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge. In the middle of the eastern side is atransform boundary with the North American Plate along the San Andreas Fault, and a boundary with the Cocos Plate. The south-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Nazca Plate forming the East Pacific Rise. The southern side is a divergent boundary with the Antarctic Plate forming thePacific-Antarctic Ridge. The western side, the plate is bounded by the Okhotsk Plate at the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and the Japan Trench, forms a convergent boundary by subducting under the Philippine Sea Plate creating the Mariana Trench, has atransform boundary with the Caroline Plate, and has a collision boundary with the North Bismarck Plate. In the south-west, the Pacific Plate has a complex but generally convergent boundary with the IndoAustralian Plate, subducting under it north of New Zealand forming the Tonga Trench and the Kermadec Trench. The Alpine Fault marks a transform boundary between the two plates, and further south the IndoAustralian Plate subducts under the Pacific Plate forming the Puysegur Trench. The southern part of Zealandia, which is to the east of this boundary, is the plate's largest block of continental crust. The northern side is a convergent boundary subducting under the North American Plate forming the Aleutian Trench and the corresponding Aleutian Islands.

The Pacific Plate contains an interior hot spot forming the Hawaiian Islands. The South American Plate is a continental tectonic plate which includes thecontinent of South America and also a sizeable region of the Atlantic Ocean seabed extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The easterly side is a divergent boundary with the African Plate forming the southern part of the MidAtlantic Ridge. The southerly side is a complex boundary with the Antarctic Plate and the Scotia Plate. The westerly side is aconvergent boundary with the subducting Nazca Plate. The northerly side is a boundary with the Caribbean Plate and the oceanic crust of the North American Plate. At the Chile Triple Junction in Taitato-Tres Montes Peninsula, an oceanic ridge the Chile Rise is subducting under the South American plate. The South American Plate is in motion, moving westward away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The eastward-moving and more dense Nazca Plate is subducting under the western edge of the South American Plate along the Pacific coast of the continent at a rate of 77 mm per year.[1] This collision of plates is responsible for lifting the massive Andes Mountains and causing the volcanoes which are strewn throughout them. Secondary plates These smaller plates are generally shown on major plate maps, although, with the exception of the Arabian and Indian plates, they do not comprise significant land area. The Arabian Plate is one of three tectonic plates (the African, Arabian and Indian crustalplates) which have been moving northward over millions of years and colliding with the Eurasian Plate. This is resulting in a mingling of plate pieces and mountain ranges extending in the west from the Pyrenees, crossing southern Europe and to Iran forming the Alborz and Zagros Mountains, to the Himalayas and ranges of southeast Asia. [1] The Arabian Plate consists mostly of the Arabian peninsula; it extends northward to Turkey. The plate borders are: East, with the Indo-Australian Plate, at the Owen Fracture Zone South, with the African Plate to the west and the Indo-Australian Plate to the east West, a left lateral fault boundary with the African Plate called the Dead Sea Transform(DST), and a divergent boundary with the African Plate called the Red Sea Rift which runs the length of the Red Sea; North, complex convergent boundary with the Anatolian Plate and Eurasian Plate.

The Arabian Plate was part of the African plate during much of the Phanerozoic Eon (PaleozoicCenozoic), until the Oligocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. Red Sea rifting began in the Eocene, but the separation of Africa and Arabia occurred in the Oligocene, and since then the Arabian Plate has been slowly moving toward the Eurasian Plate. The collision between the Arabian Plate and Eurasia is pushing up the Zagros Mountains of Iran. Because the Arabian Plate and Eurasia plate collide, many cities are in danger such as those in south eastern Turkey (which is on the Arabian Plate). These dangers include earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plateunderlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the north coast of South America. Roughly 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) in area, the Caribbean Plate borders the North American Plate, the South American Plate, the Nazca Plateand the Cocos Plate. These borders are regions of intenseseismic activity, including frequent earthquakes, occasionaltsunamis,[1] and volcanic

eruptions. The Cocos Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides upon it. The India Plate or Indian Plate is a tectonic plate that was originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana from which it split off, eventually becoming a major plate. About 55 to 50 million years ago it fused with the adjacent Australian Plate. It is today part of the major Indo-Australian Plate, and includes most of South Asia i.e., the Indian subcontinent and a portion of the basin under the Indian Ocean, including parts of South China and Eastern Indonesia,[1][2][3] and extending up to but not including Ladakh, Kohistan and Balochistan.[4][5][6] The Juan de Fuca Plate is a tectonic plate generated from the Juan de Fuca Ridge and is subducting under the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone. It is named after the explorer of the same name. One of the smallest of Earth's tectonic plates, the Juan de Fuca Plate is a remnant part of the once-vast Farallon Plate, which is now largely subducted under the North American Plate. The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America. The ongoing subduction, along the PeruChile Trench, of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate is largely responsible for the Andean orogeny. The Nazca Plate is bounded on the west by the Pacific Plate and to the south by the Antarctic Plate through the East Pacific Rise and the Chile Rise respectively. The movement of the Nazca Plate over several hotspots has created some volcanic islands as well as east-west running seamount chains that subduct under South America. Nazca is a relatively young plate both in terms of the age of its rocks and its existence as an independent plate[clarification needed]. The Philippine Sea Plate or Philippine Plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part of the Philippine Mobile Belt, which is geologically and tectonically separate from the Philippine Sea Plate. The Scotia Plate, named after the sea which overlies it, is a tectonic plate on the edge of the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean. Thought to have formed during the early Eocene with the opening of the Drake Passage, it is a minor plate whose movement is largely controlled by the two major plates that surround it; the South American plate and Antarctic plate. Having formed as oceanic crust, it is almost completely submerged with only the small exception of the South Georgia Islands on its north-eastern edge and the southern tip of South America.[1]

Continental drift In 1915, the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener first proposed the theory of continental drift, which states that parts of the Earth's crust slowly drift atop a liquid core. The fossil record supports and gives credence to the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics. Wegener hypothesized that there was a gigantic supercontinent 200 million years ago, which he named Pangaea, meaning "All-earth". Pangaea started to break up into two smaller supercontinents, called Laurasia and Gondwanaland, during the Jurassic period. By the end of the Cretaceous period, the continents were separating into land masses that look like our modern-day continents. Wegener published this theory in his 1915 book, On the Origin of Continents and Oceans. In it he also

proposed the existence of the supercontinent , and named it (Pangaea means "all the land" in Greek). Pangaea, Panga, or Pangea (/pndi/ pan-JEE-;[1]) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, forming about 300 million years ago.[2] It began to break apart around 200 million years ago.[3] The single global ocean which surrounded Pangaea is accordingly named Panthalassa. The name Pangaea is derived from Ancient Greek pan () meaning "entire", and Gaia () meaning "Earth".[4] The name was coined during a 1927 symposium discussing Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift. In his book The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), first published in 1915, he postulated that prior to breaking up and drifting to their present locations, all the continents had at one time formed a single supercontinent which he called the "Urkontinent".[5] LAYERS OF THE EARTH CRUST --The thin, outermost layer of the earth is called the crust. It makes up only one percent of the earth's mass. This consists of the continents and ocean basins. The crust has varying thickness, ranging between 35-70 km thick in the continents and 5-10 km thick in the ocean basins. Within the crust, intricate patterns are created when rocks are redistributed and deposited in layers through the geologic processes. The crust is composed mainly of alumino-silicates. MANTLE -- The mantle is a dense, hot layer of semi-solid rock approximately 2,900 km thick and is composed mainly of ferro-magnesium silicates. This is where most of the internal heat of the Earth is located. Large convective cells in the mantle circulate heat and may drive plate tectonic processes. CORE - Below the mantle is the core. It makes up nearly one third the mass of the earth. The Earth's core is actually made up of two distinct parts: a 2,200 km-thick liquid outer core and a 1,250 km-thick solid inner core. The outer core is made of iron and is very dense. As the Earth rotates, the liquid outer core spins, creating the Earth's magnetic field. The inner core is made of solid iron and nickel. Many scientists believe it is kept in the solid state because of the extreme pressure from the other layers.