"Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates which have been slowly moving since about 3.4 billion years ago."
Exploration of the theory of plate tectonics including the movement and interaction of lithospheric plates.
Continental Drift: The theory of how continents have moved over time and how they have been separated and merged together.
Plate Boundaries: These are the edges where different plates meet and interact, including divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries.
Seafloor Spreading: This mechanism explains how new oceanic crust is created at spreading centers and moves away from the center in different directions and rates.
Volcanic Activity: The formation of volcanoes and how they are connected to plate tectonics.
Earthquake Activity: The causes of earthquakes and their relationship to plate movements.
Hotspots: These are special areas where magma rises to the surface, usually in the middle of tectonic plates.
Plate Tectonics Models: The various models that explain how the Earth's crustal plates move around, including the mantle convection model.
Geological Features: The formation of mountain ranges, ocean basins, and other geological features due to plate tectonic activity over time.
Paleomagnetism: The study of the Earth's magnetic field and how it has changed over time, providing evidence for continental drift and seafloor spreading.
Geologic Time: The geological timescale and how it is used to study plate tectonic activity and changes in the Earth's surface.
Divergent Plate Boundaries: It occurs where two plates move apart from each other.
Convergent Plate Boundaries: It occurs where two plates collide with each other.
Transform Plate Boundaries: It occurs where two plates slide past each other.
Subduction Zones: It occurs where one tectonic plate is forced under another plate.
Rift Valleys: It is a deep valley where the earth's crust is pulled apart by tectonic forces.
Island Arcs: They are curving chains of volcanic islands that form parallel to a plate boundary.
Triple Junctions: It is a point where three tectonic plates meet at a single location.
Hotspots: It is a place on the Earth's surface where magma rises from deep within the mantle, creating a volcanic movement.
"The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century."
"Plate tectonics came to be accepted by geoscientists after seafloor spreading was validated in the mid-to-late 1960s."
"Earth's lithosphere is broken into seven or eight major plates."
"Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary: convergent, divergent, or transform."
"Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along these plate boundaries."
"The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually."
"Tectonic plates are composed of the oceanic lithosphere and the thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust."
"Along convergent plate boundaries, the process of subduction, or of one plate moving under another, carries the edge of one plate down under the other plate and into the mantle."
"The lost surface is balanced by the formation of new oceanic crust along divergent margins by seafloor spreading."
"This process of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle."
"Tectonic plates are able to move because Earth's lithosphere has greater mechanical strength than the underlying asthenosphere."
"Plate movement is driven by a combination of the motion of the seafloor away from spreading ridges due to variations in topography and density changes in the crust."
"At subduction zones, the relatively cold, dense oceanic crust sinks down into the mantle forming the downward convecting limb of a mantle cell. This is the strongest driver of the plates."
"The relative importance of other proposed factors such as active convection, upwelling and flow inside the mantle, and tidal drag of the moon, and their relationship to each other is still the subject of debate."