Lesson 3 · Urban and regional planners develop comprehensive plans

Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of Earth science, explaining the distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, and ocean basins. Earth's lithosphere is divided into approximately 15 major tectonic plates and several smaller ones that move at rates of 1–10 centimeters per year—roughly the rate fingernails grow. Key variants and forms of plate boundaries include divergent boundaries (mid-ocean ridges) where plates move apart and new oceanic crust forms, convergent boundaries where oceanic crust subducts beneath continental crust or continents collide, and transform boundaries where plates slide horizontally past each other.

5 min · 10 XP

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