The Ground Beneath You Is Moving… Right Now

By Science ABC

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Tectonic plates are massive slabs of Earth’s outer shell, known as the lithosphere, that fit together like pieces of a giant puzzle. These plates float on the semi-fluid asthenosphere beneath them and move slowly—usually just a few centimeters per year. The theory explaining this movement, called plate tectonics, revolutionized geology in the 20th century and built on earlier ideas such as Alfred Wegener’s continental drift hypothesis. There are seven major tectonic plates, including the Pacific, North American, Eurasian, African, Antarctic, Indo-Australian, and South American plates, along with many smaller ones. Their interactions occur at three main types of boundaries: divergent, convergent, and transform. At divergent boundaries, plates move apart, allowing magma to rise and create new crust, as seen at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Convergent boundaries form when plates collide, leading to mountain building or subduction zones, such as where the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian

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