tectonic plates

1. The dozen or so plates that make up the surface of the Earth . Their motion is studied in the field of plate tectonics .

Notes

The plates are not the same as the continents . The North American plate, for example, extends from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of the United States and Canada . These plates are about thirty miles thick.

Example Sentences

Some time ago, say a few million years ago, several tectonic plates collided.

From The Daily Beast

Mars has no tectonic plates—no continents, in other words—and no ginormous moon.

From The Daily Beast

Underneath our feet tectonic plates shift, magma bubbles, water boils, and both regularly erupt.

From The Daily Beast

These tectonic plates are likely to shift gradually, and this is part of it.

From The Daily Beast