Continents are just the tops of plates that rise above the ocean. The seven major plates include the African, Antarctic, Eurasian, North American, South American, India-Australian, and the Pacific plates. plate tectonics synonyms, plate tectonics pronunciation, plate tectonics translation, English dictionary definition of plate tectonics. Tectonic plates are parts of the planet's crust that lie far below the sea around the world, and there are two types of plates: continental plates and oceanic plates.

Plate movements are responsible for most continental and ocean floor features and for the distribution of most rocks and minerals within Earth's crust.

What is an earthquake?

Divergent Boundary Definition.

The tectonic plates of the Earth are constantly moving and pushing against each other. Soil Science Lesson for Kids 3:47 ... Tectonic Plates Lesson for Kids: Definition, Theory & Facts Related Study Materials. Moving plates can trigger huge impacts. Major and Minor Tectonic Plates Most of the Earth is covered by seven major plates and another eight or so minor plates. Colliding plates can crush against each other. Some of these plates are huge and cover entire continents.

Here, convection in the mantle and asthenosphere, pictured below, brings fresh, hot, basaltic magma toward the surface. Does Earth’s mantle drive plates, or do plates drive mantle flow? Divergent plate boundaries, also called mid-ocean ridges, oceanic spreading centers or continental rifts, occur where the Earth’s tectonic plates move away from each other. Define plate tectonics. This long-standing question may be ill posed, however, as both the lithosphere and mantle belong to a single self-organizing system. An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another.The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane.The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter. Note that some plates run under the ocean, and the continents as defined by geography. Abutting edges rise as mountains. The theory of plate tectonics explains the past and current movements of the rocks at Earth's surface (lithospheric plates) and provides a framework for understanding its geological history. “All the action is mostly at the edges,” notes Anne Egger. She’s a geologist at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.