What happens when Tectonic Plates move?

The flow of the mantle causes the plates to move in different directions. When the edges of plates meet, four things can happen: Diagram of how plates move. Even though plates move very slowly, their motion, called plate tectonics, has a huge impact on the Earth. Plate tectonics form the oceans, continents, and mountains. read more

Tectonic plates move in and out and side by side creating stresses on the tectonic plates edge. For millions of years, they had moved, created earthquakes and formed volcanoes. That is called seismic activities that lots of earthquakes are formed by. read more

The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent, where plates move into one another; divergent, where plates move apart; and transform, where plates move sideways in relation to each other. read more

Geodesists seeking to disentangle latitude and longitude from the movements of any one particular plate assume that tectonic plates are like interlocking gears–when one moves, all do–and that, if you add up all their rotational rates, they should sum to zero. read more