Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are

created as a result of Earth’s subterranean movements. The theory, which

solidified in the 1960s, transformed the earth sciences by explaining many
phenomena, including mountain building events, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

In plate tectonics, Earth’s outermost layer, or lithosphere—made up of the crust

and upper mantle—is broken into large rocky plates. These plates lie on top of a
partially molten layer of rock called the asthenosphere. Due to the convection of
the asthenosphere and lithosphere, the plates move relative to each other at
different rates, from two to 15 centimeters (one to six inches) per year.
This interaction of tectonic plates is responsible for many different geological
formations such as the Himalaya mountain range in Asia, the East African Rift,
and the San Andreas Fault in California, United States.

The idea that continents moved over time had been proposed before the
20th century. However, a German scientist named Alfred Wegener changed the
scientific debate. Wegener published two articles about a concept
called continental drift in 1912. He suggested that 200 million years ago,
a supercontinent he called Pangaea began to break into pieces, its parts moving
away from one another. The continents we see today are fragments of
that supercontinent. To support his theory, Wegener pointed to matching rock
formations and similar fossils in Brazil and West Africa. In addition, South
America and Africa looked like they could fit together like puzzle pieces.

Despite being dismissed at first, the theory gained steam in the 1950s and 1960s
as new data began to support the idea of continental drift. Maps of the ocean
floor showed a massive undersea mountain range that almost circled the entire
Earth. An American geologist named Harry Hess proposed that these ridges
were the result of molten rock rising from the asthenosphere. As it came to the
surface, the rock cooled, making new crust and spreading the seafloor away from
the ridge in a conveyer-belt motion. Millions of years later, the crust would
disappear into ocean trenches at places called subduction zones and cycle back
into Earth. Magnetic data from the ocean floor and the relatively young age of
oceanic crust supported Hess’s hypothesis of seafloor spreading.

There was one nagging question with the plate tectonics theory:
Most volcanoes are found above subduction zones, but some form far away from
these plate boundaries. How could this be explained? This question was finally
answered in 1963 by a Canadian geologist, John Tuzo Wilson. He proposed that
volcanic island chains, like the Hawaiian Islands, are created by fixed “hot spots”
in the mantle. At those places, magma forces its way upward through the moving
plate of the sea floor. As the plate moves over the hot spot, one volcanic island
after another is formed. Wilson’s explanation gave further support to plate
tectonics. Today, the theory is almost universally accepted.
Indicators of Plate Movement
The shapes of many continents are such that they look like they are separated pieces of a jig-saw puzzle
Many fossil comparisons along the edges of continents that look like they fit together suggest species similarities that
would only make sense if the two continents were joined at some point in the past.
There is a large amount of seismic, volcanic, and geothermal activity along the conjectured plate boundaries. This is
shown clearly below in the figure labeled "Crustal plate boundaries" where the epicenters of earthquakes above Richter
magnitude 5.0 are plotted for a 10-year period. The concentration is striking. and indeed this plot serves to define the
plate boundaries extremely well.
There are ridges, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where plates are separating that are produced by lava welling up from
between the plates as they pull apart. Likewise, there are mountain ranges being formed where plates are pushing
against each other (e.g., the Himalayas, which are still growing).

Direct Measurement
Modern technology gives us a range of ways to directly measure the movement of tectonic plates. These methods are
based around the idea of measuring distance between two points on Earth by using some intermediary transmitter in
space. For example, SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging) uses two lasers on Earth each of which fires a laser to a satellite orbiting
the planet. The beam is reflected back to each laser and the difference in laser beam travel time is used to estimate the
distance between the two lasers on Earth Another approach using radio-telescopes measuring natural radio signals from
deep space called VI.BI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) achieves a similar effect. Both SLR and VLBI allow for
repeated measurements of distance between two points. As the continents move, the distances change. Using these
measurements, scientists can accurately estimate movement of the tectonic plates today.

Sea Floor Magnetism

Stripes of magnetic material in the seafloor provide strong evidence for tectonic theory. The stripes alternate between
those with magnetic material orientated toward magnetic north, and thoss oriented in the opposite direction. Seafloor
spreading is the mechanism behind this phenomenon. As no magma forces its way up to the surface, magnetized
minerals in the liquid rock orient along the Earth magnetic field and then harden as the lava cools. As spreading
continues, the material moves away from the spreading zone as if on a conveyor belt. The Earth's magnetic field flips
every few hundred thousand years, and the stripes on the ocean floor show a record of those changes. By estimating
when the flips occurred and pairing that with the distance the strips have moved from the spreading zone, scientists can
estimate how fast the continents are moving.

Fossil Evidence
The continents have moved a great deal in the history of the planet, but they carry records of where they've been. Some
of this evidence is the fossils of animals and plants. Tropical species found in the Antarctic and similar fossils found in
western Africa and eastern South America tell a story of where those land masses used to be. Paleomagnetic evidence is
an even stronger piece of evidence. Magnetic strata within the fossil record show how the land masses were oriented at
different times during Earth's history. By constructing detailed records of changes in land mass orientation, scientists can
reconstruct paths of tectonic movement much further back in history than they can from the magnetic striping on the
sea floor.