How fast do continental plates move?

Answer 1

It depends on which plate as some move faster than others. A good average is about 1cm per year

Answer 2

It depends, during an earthquake the movement can be instant, However when you consider the Atlantic ocean, the rate of movement is about the same rate as your fingernails grow! It has been estimated that since Columbus sailed across the Atlantic the ocean has widened about 15 metres. So you can "wind back the tape" and realise that The continents of Europe and N. America were once joined, the break occoured about 60 million years ago.

Answer 3

Good question.

In the Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand, there is a great section called Awesome forces. It has a timber mock up house in which you can experience a mock level 6 Earthquake - very scary.

But also it has a depiction of the movement of the plate on which New Zealand slides.

That movement is about the same as the growth rate of your fingernails.

Answer 4

different plate move at different speeds I believe the red sea is closing by two centimetres a year and India is colliding with the Eurasia plate at about 3-4cm a year. some plates do all there moving during a earthquake so It is hard to measure.
The fastest of all are at the mid ocean ridges but though
I did a degree in geology, I don't have my books on me so these are approximately what I remember from lectures

Answer 5

confident and no. The plates flow as some edges are aborbed/folded into the mantle and different edges are made out of cooling molten rock "surfacing" under the oceans. So mutually as some are shifting away, they are alsom shifting closer to those on the different edge. case in point, in case you seem at time lapses of the continents commencing at pangea, you're able to see that the atlantic ocean is growing to be by way of fact the Americas flow farther remote from Africa and Europe. in spite of if, as this is happening, the american continents ought to be shifting closer to Asia interior the Pacific. The continents flow at an achingly sluggish %.: a million to ten cenitmeters a year. So we wont crash into any continents like india did to asia any time quickly

Answer 6

The Indian plate is the fastest moving continental plate, it moves at 6cm per year.
The slowest is the Eurasian plate which moves at 0.95cm per year.

Some oceanic plates move faster. The fastest is the Cocos plate at 8.55cm per year.
The Cocos Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America.

This link gives you the speeds of various plates

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/ZhenHuang.shtml

Answer 7

To put these rates of movement in perspective, Europe and America are spreading apart at about the rate your fingernails grow! The North Atlantic will widen, during a man's lifetime, by approximately his height.,

Answer 8

About 1 to 5 km per million years,

Answer 9

not very fare mm. but because of the size just a small movement is massive .
if you x the distance by the mm you would get on hell of a shift..
interesting thought no one has seemed to of mentioned if the world heats up that means the molt-on will. so this should make plates more movable
just a thought

Answer 10

5 to 10 centi meters per year. It differs from plate to plate. They are comparing the movement with the growth of nail. My nail is growing at the rate of 2.4 c.m per year. I have used the election mark on my finger to asses the growth of my nail.I am 62 years old man.