How plate tectonics moves continents
In short: Earth's outer shell is broken into plates that spread apart, sink under one another and carry continents.
1. Earth's rigid outer shell is broken into large tectonic plates. 2. The plates ride on hotter, softer rock in the mantle below. 3. At mid-ocean ridges plates spread apart and new ocean crust forms. 4. Where plates converge, one can sink beneath the other: subduction. 5. Plates move about 10 to 40 millimetres per year, carrying the continents.
Sources: Wikipedia, “Plate tectonics (Wikipedia)” (CC BY-SA 4.0). Illustrative, not to scale.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Wikipedia — Plate tectonics
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