Lesson 2: Earth’s Lithospheric

plates
 Earth’s outermost layer, or lithosphere—
made up of the crust and upper mantle—is
broken into large rocky plates or smaller
sections called tectonic plates (aka
lithospheric plates). The term tectonics
comes from the Greek word “tektonikos”
meaning “to build.” Geologically “plate”
means a large slab of rock. Together the
terms indicate how Earth’s surface is made
of large slabs of rock. The edges that
separate the tectonic plates with one another
are called plate boundaries.
 Tectonic plates can be classified as
primary (major) or secondary (minor).
Major tectonic plates comprise the bulk of
the continents and the Pacific Ocean while
secondary tectonic plates are smaller
plates that are often not shown on major
 plate maps, as the majority do not comprise
significant land area.
 The Seven Primary Plates are the African
Plate, Antarctic Plate, Eurasian Plate, North
American Plate, South American Plate,
Australian Plate, and Pacific Plate.
 The Secondary Plates are the Arabian
Plate, Caribbean Plate, Nazca Plate, Scotia
Plate, Juan de Fuca Plate, Cocos Plate,
Philippine Sea Plate, and Indian plate.