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 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.

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.

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 ...

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.