the.com/tectonic plate
Earth's crust, cracked into puzzle pieces that drift, grind, and occasionally ruin your day.
means A massive slab of Earth's rigid outer shell that floats on the hotter, softer rock beneath it, slowly shifting over millions of years.
from From Greek 'tektonikos,' meaning relating to building or construction, from 'tekton' (builder, carpenter) — the same root gives us 'architect.' Geologists borrowed it in the 20th century for plate tectonics, the theory that Earth's crust is built from shifting pieces, as the idea finally gained acceptance after decades of resistance to the notion that continents could actually move.
- speed
- moves about as fast as fingernails grow
- count
- about 15 major plates cover the globe
- collision result
- himalayas still rising from india's slow-motion crash
- engine
- driven by heat convection deep in the mantle