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Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.
Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary (or fault): convergent, divergent, or transform. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. Faults tend to be geologically active, experiencing earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation.
Extensional tectonics is associated with the stretching and thinning of the crust or the lithosphere.This type of tectonics is found at divergent plate boundaries, in continental rifts, during and after a period of continental collision caused by the lateral spreading of the thickened crust formed, at releasing bends in strike-slip faults, in back-arc basins, and on the continental end of ...
Today, the African plate is moving over Earth's surface at a speed of 32.51 km per million years relative to the Earth's "average" crust velocities (see NNR-MORVEL56) Map of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes (red triangles) and the Afar Triangle (shaded, center) – a triple junction where three plates are pulling ...
Examples of intraplate earthquakes include those in Mineral, Virginia, in 2011 (estimated magnitude 5.8), Newcastle, New South Wales in 1989, New Madrid in 1811 and 1812 (estimated magnitude as high as 8.6), [6] the Boston (Cape Ann) earthquake of 1755 (estimated magnitude 6.0 to 6.3), earthquakes felt in New York City in 1737 and 1884 (both ...
Plates in the crust of Earth. Earth's crust is its thick outer shell of rock, referring to less than one percent of the planet's radius and volume.It is the top component of the lithosphere, a solidified division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. [1]
The Azores triple junction is a geologic triple junction where the boundaries of three tectonic plates intersect: the North American plate, the Eurasian plate and the African plate, R-R-R. [9] The Boso triple junction offshore of Japan is a T-T-T triple junction between the Okhotsk microplate , Pacific plate and Philippine Sea plate .
The North American plate is a tectonic plate containing most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores.With an area of 76 million km 2 (29 million sq mi), it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific plate (which borders the plate to the west).