These continents are still on the move today. Exactly what drives plate tectonics is not known. One theory is that convection within the Earth's mantle pushes the plates, in much the same way that ...

Where convection currents push plates together, destructive plate boundaries (margins) are formed. Constructive plate margins close constructive plate marginAn area where two tectonic plates are ...

Plate tectonics give Earth its mountains, earthquakes, continental drift and maybe even helped give rise to life itself. But do other planets in the solar system have them too?

Since the late 1960s, when plate tectonics and slow, creeping convection of the rocky mantle became accepted, geoscientists have been debating whether convection extends from the surface to the ...

These movements, called convection, are responsible for plate tectonics. Oceanic plates, being denser, plunge into the mantle at subduction zones, while hot material rises to the surface. This cycle ...

Plate tectonics (from the Late Latin tectonicus ... Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection. Plate movement is thought to be driven by a combination of the motion of the ...