It's how mountains form, volcanoes erupt and continents drift apart. So, what causes the tectonic plates to move? Discover the origins of the continental drift theory and how scientists explain these ...

Earth’s crust looks solid from the surface, but it is broken into a shifting mosaic of slabs that slowly rearrange oceans and continents. Understanding how those tectonic plates first formed is one of ...

Map of Earth's principal tectonic plates. Earth's lithosphere. Major and minor plates. arrows indicate direction of movement at plate boundaries. Vector illustration. Billions of years ago, Earth's ...

Tectonic plates are massive slabs of solid rock that make up Earth’s outer layer, known as the lithosphere. These plates float on the semi-fluid layer beneath them called the asthenosphere. Earth’s ...

The Earth's crust is divided into tectonic plates that move due to forces within the planet. There are three types of plate interactions: divergent boundaries, where plates move apart and seafloor ...

About 150 million years ago, a massive tectonic mega-plate stretched across the Earth, spanning roughly a quarter of the size of the Pacific Ocean. Its jagged contours ran all the way through the ...

The plate movement is also causing the Himalayas to grow taller. The Indian tectonic plate is shifting towards the Eurasian plate, resulting in a decrease of landmass at a rate of 2mm per year, ...

Matt Benoit is a journalist based in Bellingham, Washington. His work has appeared in several Washington newspapers, the Pacific Northwest Inlander, Salish Current, WhatcomTalk.com and Freethink Media ...

The first direct evidence of how and when tectonic plates move into the deepest reaches of the Earth is published in Nature today. Scientists hope their description of how plates collide with one ...

The Earth with the upper mantle revealed. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a previously unknown layer of partly molten rock in a key region just below the tectonic ...