What Is Plate Tectonics?

Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over the mantle.

Earth's core is divided into several layers that glide over the crust.

Earth's mantle is divided into several plates that glide over the lithosphere.

Earth's lithosphere is divided into several layers that glide over the core.

Alfred Wegener

Nicholas van der Elst

Becky Oskin

National Geographic

5 : America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica

9: North American, Pacific, Eurasian, African, Indo-Australian, Australian, Indian, South American, and Antarctic.

3: Divergent, convergent and Transform

Pacific Plate

Eurasian Plate

North American Plate

African Plate

Convection in the mantle

Rotation of the Earth

Gravitational pull of the Moon

Magnetic field of the Earth

Transform boundary

Convergent boundary

Divergent boundary

Subduction zone

200 million years

3.8 billion years

4.54 billion years

300 million years

Pangaea

Rodinia

Snowball Earth

Himalayan Supercontinent