Skip to content
EarthHow Logo
  • About
  • TopicsExpand
    • Atmosphere
    • Career
    • Geology
    • Life Science
    • Outer Space
    • Water Science
Guides
EarthHow Logo

Plate Tectonics

10 Little-Known Facts About Volcanoes
Geology | Plate Tectonics

10 Little-Known Facts About Volcanoes

Ready to learn about volcanoes? From lightning that sparks at a volcano to its deadly hazards, we’re going to dive into 10 little-known facts about volcanoes

Read MoreContinue

3 Types of Faults: Normal, Reverse and Strike-Slip
Geology | Plate Tectonics

3 Types of Faults: Normal, Reverse and Strike-Slip

The 3 types of faults are: normal, reverse and strike-slip. When two blocks slide horizontally, it’s strike-slip. If it moves vertically, it’s dip-slip.

Read MoreContinue

7 Major Tectonic Plates: The World’s Largest Plate Tectonics
Geology | Plate Tectonics

7 Major Tectonic Plates: The World’s Largest Plate Tectonics

From large to small, the 7 major tectonic plates include the Pacific, North American, Eurasian, African, Antarctic, Indo-Australian and South American plate.

Read MoreContinue

Transform Plate Boundaries: Sliding Plate Tectonics
Geology | Plate Tectonics

Transform Plate Boundaries: Sliding Plate Tectonics

Conservative or transform plate boundaries slide across each other. They neither converge or diverge such as parts of the North American and Pacific Plate.

Read MoreContinue

Pacific Plate: Movement and Direction of the Pacific Tectonic Boundary
Geology | Plate Tectonics

Pacific Plate: Movement and Direction of the Pacific Tectonic Boundary

The Pacific Plate stretches all the way along the west coast of North America and reaches all the way to the east coast of the islands of Japan & Indonesia.

Read MoreContinue

Convergent Plate Boundaries: The Collision of Plate Tectonics
Geology | Plate Tectonics

Convergent Plate Boundaries: The Collision of Plate Tectonics

Convergent plate boundaries have some of the most violent catastrophes and geology on Earth. When plates smash together, it has created chains of volcanoes.

Read MoreContinue

African Plate and the East African Rift Zone
Geology | Plate Tectonics

African Plate and the East African Rift Zone

The African major plate contains all of Africa as well as the surrounding oceanic crust of the Atlantic Ocean. It moves at an average rate of 2.5 cm per year.

Read MoreContinue

Divergent Plate Tectonics: Boundaries that Pull Apart
Geology | Plate Tectonics

Divergent Plate Tectonics: Boundaries that Pull Apart

Beneath the oceans, lava erupts every day from mid-oceanic ridges. These divergent plate boundaries pull apart from each other creating new igneous rock.

Read MoreContinue

North American Plate: Tectonic Boundary Map and Movements
Geology | Plate Tectonics

North American Plate: Tectonic Boundary Map and Movements

The North American plate extends all the way over the North pole to Siberia. It also includes Greenland, Cuba, the Bahamas and part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Read MoreContinue

How Does the Supercontinent Cycle Work?
Geology | Plate Tectonics

How Does the Supercontinent Cycle Work?

If you went 200 million years back in time, Earth was 1 supercontinent. Now, it’s made up of 7 separate continents. This is the supercontinent cycle at work.

Read MoreContinue

What Is Pangaea? Piecing Together the Supercontinent Jigsaw Puzzle
Geology | Plate Tectonics

What Is Pangaea? Piecing Together the Supercontinent Jigsaw Puzzle

About 200 million years ago, all the continents were together as one giant supercontinent known as Pangaea. Over time, these continents have broken apart.

Read MoreContinue

Continental Drift: A Tale of Moving Continents and Plate Tectonics
Geology | Plate Tectonics

Continental Drift: A Tale of Moving Continents and Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics are deceptively slow. It’s just centimeters each year. Continental drift is the idea that continents passively move due to tectonic activity

Read MoreContinue

Antarctic Plate: The Drifting Continent of Antarctica
Geology | Plate Tectonics

Antarctic Plate: The Drifting Continent of Antarctica

Antarctic plate holds the continent of Antarctica including the surrounding ocean. It shares borders with the African, Pacific & South American plate.

Read MoreContinue

Indo-Australian Plate: Tectonic Boundaries and Movement
Geology | Plate Tectonics

Indo-Australian Plate: Tectonic Boundaries and Movement

The Indo-Australian Plate combines the Australian & Indian Plate. Widely considered two separate plates, it includes Australia, India and the Indian Ocean.

Read MoreContinue

South American Plate: Tectonic Boundary and Movement
Geology | Plate Tectonics

South American Plate: Tectonic Boundary and Movement

The South American plate is the smallest of all major plates that includes the continent of South America and a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean.

Read MoreContinue

Page navigation

1 2 Next
  • About
  • Articles
  • Contact
  • How To Cite
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

© 2021 Earth How

css.php
  • Geology
  • Outer Space
  • Atmosphere
  • Life Science
  • Career
  • Water Science
Search