These plates move relative to each other typically at rates of 5 to 10 cm 2 to 4 inches per year and interact along their boundaries where they converge diverge or slip past one another.
The continents and ocean floor are on lithospheric plates.
List the seven largest lithospheric plates.
American pacific african eurasian australian indian and antarctic.
Theory that lithospheric plates move and interact.
The north american and eurasian tectonic plates for example are separated by the mid atlantic ridge.
Plate tectonics and the ocean floor bathymetry the shape of the ocean floor is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics.
Long chain of mountains with a central rift valley that is located along a divergent boundary on the ocean floor.
Plates that are not subducting are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid ocean ridges a process called ridge push.
The two continents are moving away from each other at the rate of about 2 5 centimeters 1 inch per year.
The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones rather than magma pressure although there is typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges.
The lithosphere is broken up into seven very large continental and ocean sized plates six or seven medium sized regional plates and several small ones.
Hypothesis that earth s continents move on the earth s surface.