A New Dimension to Plate Tectonics . New tools to model and visualize subduction zones in 3-D are providing researchers with insights into the gaps inherent in the theory of plate tectonics. The interactions of these plates shape all modern land masses and influence the major features of planetary geology — from earthquakes and volcanoes to the emergence of continents. Others say it was closer to 1 billion. New research suggests plate tectonics may have been well under way on Earth more than 3.2 billion years ago, adding a new dimension to the ongoing debate …

An enduring question in geology involves the question of when the tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust began pushing and pulling in a process that formed the planet’s continents, oceans, and other landforms. Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of geology, said Nicholas van der Elst, a seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. Major Tectonic Plates By Size Pacific Plate - 103,300,000 sq km The Pacific Plate is estimated to be 103,300,000 square kilometers in size.

Tectonic plates are 62 miles thick and are made up of the continental crust and the oceanic crust.

Principles of plate tectonics. In essence, plate-tectonic theory is elegantly simple. With tectonic plates bumping and grinding against each other, Earth is a pretty active planet. Earth’s surface layer, 50 to 100 km (30 to 60 miles) thick, is rigid and is composed of a set of large and small plates. The metaphorical birth certificate for the earth's tectonic plates might be in need of an edit. There are a total of seven major tectonic plates which cover nearly 95% of the Earth's surface. At this pace, it would take a million years for the two broken pieces to be 1.7 km (1 mile) apart. As the process repeated over time, it created a large tectonic plate with an active subduction zone.

Such movements can trigger millions of years of devastating earthquakes. Over a much longer period, the same process could have created many tectonic plates, says co-author David Bercovici, a geophysicist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Some researchers theorize it happened about 4 billion years ago. Tectonic plates are large slabs of rock embedded in the Earth’s crust and upper mantle, the next layer down.

Together, these plates constitute the lithosphere, from the Greek lithos, meaning “rock.” Tectonic plates are defined as major and minor plates depending on their size.

A new study has revealed a new tectonic microplate — there are now 57 in total. Convection refers to specific cells within the Earth’s mantle …

A giant tectonic plate under the Indian Ocean, known as the India-Australia Capricorn plate, is breaking apart at about 1.7 mm (0.07 mm) per year, according to a new study.

Slab pull is the most relevant force that affects the movement of tectonic plates. But when did this activity begin?