Download Moving Plates

Moving Plates
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The Earth’s crust is composed of several
huge, solid sections, called plates.
These plates move slowly as they float on
the semi-liquid below.
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There are 7 major lithospheric plates:
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Indian-Australian
Pacific
North American
South American
Antarctic
African
Eurasian.
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There are 8 minor lithospheric plates:
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Antarctic Plate (although some consider this to be a
major plate!)
Arabian Plate
Caribbean Plate
Cocus Plate
Juan de Fuca Plate
Nasco Plate
Indian Plate
Philippine Plate
Movement of Plates
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The plates are moving relative to one
another.
For example the plates that carry North
America and the plate that carries Europe
are moving away from each other.
Wherever plates meet, earthquakes signal
their movement.
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Most Earthquakes occur at the edge of
continental and oceanic plates.
Many of the Earth’s earthquakes occur in
the Pacific Ocean around the “Ring of Fire”
Mid Atlantic Ridge
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The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is a mid ocean
ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary
located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
It separates the Eurasian Plate and North
American Plate in the North Atlantic, and the
African Plate from the South American Plate in
the South Atlantic.
Slipping By: A Fault
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A fault occurs in a place on the Earth’s
crust where plates are slipping past each
other.
Collision: Subduction
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Plates collide as they move toward each
other.
When they collide one plate slides below
the other. As the lower plate plunges
underneath it pushes into the hot mantle,
heats up and melts.
Separation: Ridges
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In the places where the plates are moving
apart from one another, hot magma rises
up into the crack between the plates and
hardens, forming ridges of new rock.