Hi Eco-Warriors I hope you are doing fine,

Let’s talk about plate tectonics an interesting, slow yet a very important phenomenon.

I read about it some time ago and it surprised me no end. I was so curious to know more that I searched and read encyclopedia to get to understand what these are all about I got to know a lot of interesting information and I thought it would be great to share with you how deep down inside our earth’s surface there are such complex process that work in continuous harmony. 

First let’s start by defining what the plate tectonics are. In simple words we can say -Plate tectonics is the wide scale movement of a huge number of small sized plates inside earth’s surface. Let’s talk a little more about the way these form the layer on earth’s surface. These small plates made up of the entire layer of the crust and upper mantle.

You all might would have heard somewhere that earth was once made up of a single surface of land which eventually moved farther to make what we now call as large masses of land the ‘Continents’. The entire mass of land was called the Pangaea. But do you know what moved all this so far away it was the motion of these small yet powerful Tectonics. 

We all must have heard of things like Earthquakes, volcanic activity, but have you ever heard of what actually causes these powerful activities, is it a monster ? No, Is it aliens ? No, Is it plate tectonics, Yes, the actual reason of these natural activities or calamities is the small plates. It is due to the activity of the plates especially on the ‘plate boundary’ and increased stress that the earthquakes happen.

Do you know where the world’s most active volcanoes situated, Japan, Peru, NO, Plate Boundary Yes, the exact location of every originating active volcano is this. The most famous boundary is in San Andreas which has been a cause of earthquakes. Do you know that the region of Mariana Trench is also formed by the plate boundaries, isn’t that insane ? Also the Himalayas and Everest are formed by these boundaries. Plate tectonics have been a phenomenon which not only causes destruction but is also the cause for Tsunami which happens due the shifting of the plate tectonics in the middle of the ocean. Also in my geography class in was told that there is a Ring Of Fire, which I first thought was a fictional place but it’s actually not. It’s the place where most of the earthquakes and eruptions occur also where the big tectonic plates meet and push against each other.

Plate tectonics are a constantly happening action which is not going to stop ever. We had always looked as if the earth rotated and revolved but did we ever think that the earth surface also moved and that too at such a pace. 

Look at this picture below which I made to get a better understanding. 

Green Cheers, 

Anoushka Sinha 

India