Earth Science Stack Exchange
Earth Science Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [plate-tectonics]

The theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over the mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core.

Plate tectonics describes the large-scale motion of the large plates composing Earth's lithosphere. The model builds on the concept of continental drift.

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Do Tectonic Plates Merge?

I had a question concerning the nature of continental plates. When looking at the Eurasian Plate today, for the most part, there is one solid fragment of the Earth's crust. However, having had a look at maps detailing prehistoric Earth, this isn't…
N Francis
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Movement of the Prime/Greenwich Meridian

The line on the ground at the Greenwich Observatory is itself on a tectonic plate that is moving, so is the prime meridian still 0 degrees, 0 minutes, 0 seconds? If not - what are the implications (if any)? For example, if my GPS says I am 100 km…
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What does the absence of passive margins between 1740-1600 million years ago tell us about the tectonic environment at that time?

In the article Passive margins through earth history (Bradley, 2008), a passive margin is defined as: a synonym for the bulkier Atlantic-type margin, trailing-edge margin, rifted margin, or divergent margin. A passive margin is one formed by…
user889
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How did Australia separate from India?

So on a lot of maps of tectonic plates, it appears that India and Australia share a tectonic plate (hence the Indo-Australian plate). But in maps of Pangaea, India and Australia appear to have once shared a border. Since continents only move because…
Clement Luong
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The edges of the tectonic plates

I have read that the edges of the tectonic plates exist at places like: huge mountains and sea trenches, and I wondered if they exist at the mid-oceanic ridges?
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Difference between Ocean-Ocean subduction and Continental-Ocean from earthquake data

I am having a hard time finding this anywhere -- if no one can answer, I would appreciate a reference. I was doing introductory homework in earth science, and we had to determine the kind of plate boundary via earthquake data. We were given…
guest boy
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Is it inaccurate to describe Earth's mantle as "soft and plastic"?

The Earth's mantle, away from the occasional magma chamber, is solid. But it flows over time and so is described as "pliant", "hot chocolate", "toothpaste", etc. Glaciers flow much faster. But ice is rigid, solid and brittle, reflected in words such…
Kevin Kostlan
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Is there a place where the sea floor descends into the mantle of the earth?

My understanding of plate tectonics is that in the middle of the oceans magma rises from the mantle of the earth, cools and then spreads out, building up the sea floor. These places are pretty obvious because they have lava coming out of them. On…
Tyler Durden
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What formations are to be expected to develop between the transform boundaries of oceanic and continental plates?

This could be needed in the Worldbuilding stack exchange instead of here, but when I was mapping out the movements of the tectonic plates, then there's a few locations where oceanic and continental plates are moving parallel to one another in…
Dead Knight
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Could water pressure at the coast be the cause of continental drift?

For example the Northern Africa is getting closer to Europe, where the depth of the sea is lower than in south African coast Could it be that the water's pressure pushes the continent from where the sea is deeper?
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What causes some plates to move faster than others?

Why do some tectonic plates move faster than others? Is it due to friction between the plates, the driving forces on the plates, or both? If it is driving forces, what makes the driving forces on some plates stronger than on others?
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Might continental drift ever stabilize?

Is it possible that, one day in the distant future, it might be true that continental drift would stabilize? For the sake of discussion, we could suppose "stability" would mean less than a meter of movement within a thousand-year span relative to…
stack
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How did New Zealand's continental crust get split between two plates?

In New Zealand today, the Alpine fault features two pieces of continental crust sliding past each other, with the whole Eastern side of the South Island falling on the Pacific plate. But when New Zealand separated from Gondwanaland, it was entirely…
Antarctica07
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Are oceanic plates or continental plates heavier?

If you take a cilindrical section with radius 1 meter of both kinds of plate, which will have a larger mass? My guess is that continental plates are heavier than oceanic plates, because they are more than twice as thick while their densities are…
Riemann
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How many supercontinents have there been?

With plate tectonics, supercontinents split up into smaller continents, and then the smaller continents get mashed up together to form a new supercontinent. There used to be a single supercontinent Pangea, and before that there was Rodinia. How many…
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