From the deepest ocean trench to the tallest mountain, plate tectonics explains the features and movement of Earth's surface in the present and the past. The theory of plate tectonics was ...

Whatever drives the movement, plate tectonic activity takes place at four types of boundaries: divergent boundaries, where new crust is formed; convergent boundaries, where crust is consumed ...

New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth's surface. But the Earth isn't getting any bigger. What happens, then, to ...

Plate boundaries are where the action is ... Use Graphic 2 to discuss convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries. Explain why each of these boundaries has the particular observable phenomena ...

Sometimes, when they meet each other head on, one plate starts moving upwards to form mountains, while the other is pushed downwards where it melts. This is a convergent boundary. Scientists have ...

The highest mountain ranges on Earth -- such as the Himalayas or the Andes -- arise along convergent plate boundaries. At such plate boundaries two tectonic plates move toward each other ...

These convergent boundaries also occur where a plate of ocean dives, in a process called subduction, under a landmass. As the overlying plate lifts up, it also forms mountain ranges. In addition ...

This is called a destructive or convergent plate boundary. When the plates collide, the denser plate, usually the oceanic one, is forced underneath the continental plate. The force of this ...