Shifting
Ground

Every named region is a tectonic plate.
Every glowing point is where two of them meet.

drag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom · click a glowing point · scroll down to learn more
Boundary types
Convergent — collide
Divergent — pull apart
Transform — slide past
The basics

What is a tectonic plate?

Earth's outer shell isn't one solid piece. It's cracked into large, rigid slabs of rock called tectonic plates, drifting slowly over the softer, hotter rock beneath them.

~15major and minor plates make up the ground beneath every ocean and continent
2–10cmhow far a plate typically drifts each year — about the speed a fingernail grows
3ways boundaries behave: colliding, pulling apart, or sliding past one another
1960swhen plate tectonics went from a fringe idea to accepted scientific fact

Almost every earthquake, volcano, and mountain range traces back to what's happening at a plate boundary — exactly what each glowing point on the globe above shows in motion.