Indonesia’s frequent earthquakes are not random; they can be traced back to the dynamic and powerful forces of plate tectonics. But what exactly is plate tectonics, and how does it cause Indonesia to ...

Our planet has an outer layer made up of several plates, which move relative to one another. While we may take this knowledge for granted, this theory of plate tectonics was only formulated in the ...

Plate tectonics explains the movement and interaction of the Earth's upper layers. More accurately, the lithosphere, which is composed of the crust and upper layer of the mantle.

Surprisingly, geologists don't have a good answer for when plate tectonics emerged, and estimates range from 700 million years ago to before 4 billion years ago, when Earth was still in its infancy.

Calculating the theoretical height is a little harder than it sounds, though. GPS measurements of plate motion aren’t enough to figure out the forces involved, just as the speed of two cars isn ...

Plate tectonics reveals how Earth’s surface is constantly in motion, and how its features — volcanoes, earthquakes, ocean basins and mountains — are intrinsically linked to its hot interior.

Plate tectonics, the idea that the surface of the Earth is made up of plates that move apart and come back together, has been used to explain the locations of volcanoes and earthquakes since the 1960s ...

These convergent boundaries also occur where a plate of ocean dives, in a process called subduction, under a landmass. As the overlying plate lifts up, it also forms mountain ranges.

Several studies had pegged the beginning of plate tectonics at around 3 billion years ago, but the new research suggests this dynamic started 3.5 billion years ago — only about a billion years ...