plate boundaries
Where continents meet
Plate boundaries are the edges where tectonic plates meet.
The Earth's outer shell consists of massive slabs that shift against each other—colliding, pulling apart, or sliding past one another.
Earthquakes and volcanic activity concentrate along these zones.
The San Andreas Fault marks a plate boundary.
Most of the Pacific Rim sits on plate boundaries.
- divergentDeviating from the norm
- earthquakeSeismic ground movement
- earthquake zoneRegion of frequent tremors
- subduction zonesWhere tectonic plates descend
- tectonicsStudy of crustal deformation
mountain range · lithosphere · transform · graben · horst · mid-ocean ridge · volcanic arc · fault zone · trench · fault lines · continental drift · spreading · crust · uplift · fissure · convergent · fault · fracture
- earthquakesearthquake, quake, earthquakes, quakes, epicenter
- geologybedrock, fault lines, faults, rock, basalt
- plate tectonicstectonic plates, subduction, subduction zones, continental drift, Pangaea
- seismologyearthquake, earthquakes, seismograph, seismicity, seismometer
- Earth's crustgranite, basalt, sedimentary rock, continental crust, igneous rock
- Earthquake ZonesRing of Fire, Pacific Ring of Fire, San Andreas Fault, fault lines, subduction zones