which are the 7 major plates?

Answer 1

You got your dinner plate, salad plate, butter plate, soup bowl, dessert plate and charger. I think there are only 6, but I haven't been to a really fancy restaurant in a long time.

Cheers!

Answer 2

Current major plates

* African Plate
* Antarctic Plate
* Arabian Plate
* Australian Plate
* Cocos Plate
* Eurasian Plate
* Indo-Australian Plate
* Indian Plate
* Nazca Plate
* North American Plate
* Pacific Plate
* Philippine Plate
* Scotia Plate
* South American Plate

Answer 3

1)Pacific--------------Pacific Ocean, and Oceania
2)South American---South America
3)North American---North America
4) African-------------Africa
5)Eurasian------------Europe and all of Asia(except for the indian subcontinent)
6)Nazca---------------West of the S.A Plate
7)Indo-Australian--India, Parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Madlives, and Australia & New Zealand.


Antarctica is not categorized in any of the plates.

There are many mini plates within these plates.

When plates diverge they may form islands, like Japan and Hawaii.

When plated crash with each other the result be mountains, like the Himalayas, and the Andes.

For more info. I suggest that you ask your science teacher, or your local librarian for help to find books on them!!

Answer 4

Majors

* African Plate
* Antarctic Plate
* Arabian Plate
* Australian Plate
* Cocos Plate
* Eurasian Plate
* Indo-Australian Plate
* Indian Plate
* Nazca Plate
* North American Plate
* Pacific Plate
* Philippine Plate
* Scotia Plate
* South American Plate


Minors

* Amurian Plate
* Anatolian Plate
* Apulian Plate
* Bering Block
* Bismark Microplate
* Burma Plate
* Caribbean Plate
* Caroline Plate
* East American Plate
* Easter Microplate
* Explorer Plate
* Fiji Microplates
* Galapagos Microplate
* Gorda Plate
* Hellenic Plate
* Iberian Plate
* Iranian Plate
* Juan de Fuca Plate
* Juan Fernandez Microplate
* Okhotsk Plate
* Rivera Microplate
* Somali Plate
* South Sandwich Plate
* Sunda Plate
* Tonga Plate

Answer 5

Pacific, South American, North American, African, Eurasian, Arabian and the Indian Australian.
See the link below for the names of the smaller plates.

Answer 6

Europe, North America, South America, Australia, Antartica, Africa, and Asia.

Answer 7

Don't they represent the 7 continents?--Europe, North America, South America, Australia, Antartica, Africa, and Asia.

Answer 8

dinner plate is my fav...then lunch plates and license plates

Answer 9

Earthquakes and volcanoes, evidence of unrest in the Earth, help locate the edges of plates. Earthquakes are distributed in narrow, linear belts that circle the Earth.



Some of these belts have only shallow (0-20 miles; 0-35 km) earthquakes, like the mid-Atlantic and east Pacific ridges. In contrast, earthquakes in other belts, like western South America and south-central Asia, are at shallow, intermediate (20-45 miles; 30-70 km), and deep (45-450 miles; 70-700 km) levels.

Volcanoes are also distributed in long belts that circle the Earth. A dramatic example is the line of volcanoes that circles most of the Pacific Ocean. This belt is known as the "Ring of Fire" because it is the site of frequent volcanic eruptions.



The distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes coincides at most locations. The Ring of Fire is an excellent example. Geologists believe that areas of intense geologic activity, indicated by earthquakes, volcanoes, and/or mountain building, mark the boundaries between lithospheric plates. The distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain ranges define 7 large plates and 20 smaller plates. The Nazca and Juan de Fuca Plates consist of only oceanic lithosphere. The Pacific Plate is mostly oceanic lithosphere only a small slice of continental lithosphere in southern California and Baja Mexico. Most of the other plates consist of both oceanic and continental lithosphere.
........................................................................................................
The earth’s crust is divided into 7 major plates that are "floating" on a less rigid material, the mantle.

Movement within the mantle and volcanic activity at the boundary of the plates pushes the plates apart. The volcanic activity adds new material to the crusts from deeper within the earth.

Ocean trenches are formed as one plate rides on top of another, pushing it down into the earth.

The pressure of plates pushing against each other at their boundaries is often sufficient to melt, deform, or uplift rock, producing volcanic activity and mountains. Earthquakes are also common in these regions.
.........................................................................................................
Earth's history can be divided into five major time units called eras. The first two eras (the archean and the proterozoic) will be grouped together and called the: Precambrian. The next three eras are the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. These three eras are further divided into units called periods. For example, the Mesozoic era contains the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods.

Many of the geological time periods end with mass extinction.
.........................................................................................................
Development of Plate Tectonics Theory
The beginnings of the theory of plate tectonics date to around 1920, when Alfred Wegener, the German meteorologist and geophysicist, presented the first detailed accounts of how today’s continents were once a large supercontinent that slowly drifted to their present positions. Others brought forth evidence, but plate tectonics processes and continental drift did not attract wide interest until the late 1950s, when scientists found the alignment of magnetic particles in rock responded to the earth’s magnetic field of that time. Plotting paleomagnetic polar changes (see paleomagnetism) showed that all continents had moved across the earth over time. 2
Synthesized from these findings and others in geology, oceanography, and geophysics, plate tectonics theory holds that the lithosphere, the hard outer layer of the earth, is divided into about 7 major plates and perhaps as many as 12 smaller plates, c.60 mi (100 km) thick, resting upon a lower soft layer called the asthenosphere. Because the sides of a plate are either being created or destroyed, its size and shape are continually changing. Such active plate tectonics make studying global tectonic history, especially for the ocean plates, difficult for times greater than 200 million years ago. The continents, which are c.25 mi (40 km) thick, are embedded in some of the plates, and hence move as the plates move about on the earth’s surface. 3
The mechanism moving the plates is at present unknown, but is probably related to the transfer of heat energy or convection within the earth’s mantle. If true, and the convection continues, the earth will continue to cool. This will eventually halt the mantle’s motion allowing the crust to stabilize, much like what has happened on other planets and satellites in the solar system, such as Mars and the moon. 4

Plate Boundary Conditions
There are numerous major plate boundary conditions. When a large continental mass breaks into smaller pieces under tensional stresses, it does so along a series of cracks or faults, which may develop into a major system of normal faults. The crust often subsides, forming a rift valley similar to what is happening today in the Great Rift Valley through the Red Sea. If rifting continues, a new plate boundary will form by the process of seafloor spreading. Mid-ocean ridges, undersea mountain chains, are the locus of seafloor spreading and are the sites where new oceanic lithosphere is created by the upwelling of mantle asthenosphere. 5
Individual volcanoes are found along spreading centers of the mid-ocean ridge and at isolated “hot spots,” or rising magma regions, not always associated with plate boundaries. The source of hot-spot magmas is believed to be well below the lithosphere, probably at the core-mantle boundary. Hot-spot volcanoes often form long chains that result from the relative motion of the lithosphere plate over the hot-spot source. 6
Subduction zones along the leading edges of the shifting plates form a second type of boundary where the edges of lithospheric plates dive steeply into the earth and are reabsorbed at depths of over 400 mi (640 km). Earthquake foci form steeply inclined planes along the subduction zones, extending to depths of about 440 mi (710 km); the world’s most destructive earthquakes occur along subduction zones. 7
A third type of boundary occurs where two plates slide past one another in a grinding, shearing manner along great faults called strike-slip faults or fracture zones along which the oceanic ridges are offset. Continental mountain ranges are formed when two plates containing continental crust collide. For example, the Himalayas are still rising as the plates carrying India and Eurasia come together. Mountains are also formed when ocean crust is subducted along a continental margin, resulting in melting of rock, volcanic activity, and compressional deformation of the continent margin. This is currently happening with the Andes Mts. and is believed to have occurred with the uplift of the Rockies and the Appalachians in the past. 8

Movement of the Continents
According to plate tectonics, the ocean basins are viewed as transient features that have periodically opened and closed, first rending and then suturing the continental masses, which are permanent features on the earth’s surface. Geologists now believe that the continents were sutured together 200 million years ago at the beginning of the Mesozoic era to form a supercontinent named Pangaea. Initial rifting along the Tethys Sea formed a northern continental mass, Laurasia, and a southern continental mass, Gondwanaland. Then plate movements caused North American and Eurasian separation coincidentally with the separation of South America, Africa, and India. Australia and Antarctica were the last to separate. The major plates are named after the dominant geographic feature on them such as the North American and South American plates. 9
Plate motions are believed to have transported large crustal blocks several thousand miles, suturing very different terrains together after collision with a larger mass. These “exotic” terrains may include segments of island arcs quite unrelated to the history of the continent onto which they are sutured. Some geologists believe that continents grow in size primarily by the addition of exotic terrains.
.........................................................................................................

Answer 10

seven?
check the source