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.

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

Regular earthquakes happen when stresses that accumulate as tectonic plates grind together over centuries or millennia are suddenly released, creating intense shaking that lasts only seconds.

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I see the Earth and the tectonic plates underneath.

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For years, geologists assumed these enriched elements came from ocean sediments pulled into the mantle when tectonic plates sink, or from columns of rising hot rock known as mantle plumes.

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It’s no wonder, then, that those of us sitting on its surface hardly notice the slow creep of its tectonic plates.

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The puzzle pieces, called tectonic plates, sit on the asthenosphere, a layer of Earth that shifts and flows.

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