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The theory of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere. [2] The speculation that continents might have "drifted" was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596.
The Australian Plate fused with the Indian Plate between 50 and 55 Ma. The fastest-moving plates are the oceanic plates, with the Cocos Plate advancing at a rate of 75 mm/a (3.0 in/year) [126] and the Pacific Plate moving 52–69 mm/a (2.0–2.7 in/year). At the other extreme, the slowest-moving plate is the South American Plate, progressing at ...
This article describes techniques; for a history of the movement of tectonic plates, see Geological history of Earth.. Plate reconstruction is the process of reconstructing the positions of tectonic plates relative to each other (relative motion) or to other reference frames, such as the Earth's magnetic field or groups of hotspots, in the geological past.
Earth's tectonic evolution over time from a molten state at 4.5 Ga, [11] to a single-plate lithosphere, [24] to modern plate tectonics sometime between 3.2 Ga [25] and 1.0 Ga [26] Primordial heat energy comes from the potential energy released by collapsing a large amount of matter into a gravity well, and the kinetic energy of accreted matter.
The Indian plate is currently moving north-east at five cm (2.0 in) per year, while the Eurasian plate is moving north at only two cm (0.79 in) per year. This is causing the Eurasian plate to deform, and the Indian plate to compress at a rate of four mm (0.16 in) per year. [citation needed]
The southwest section of the Ring of Fire is more complex, with a number of smaller tectonic plates in collision with the Pacific plate at the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and New Zealand; this part of the Ring excludes Australia, because that landmass lies in the center of its tectonic plate far ...
For humans, we're 99.9 percent similar to the person sitting next to us. The rest of those genes tell us everything from our eye color to if we're predisposed to certain diseases.
The Pacific plate, to the west of the fault, is moving in a northwest direction while the North American plate to the east is moving toward the southwest, but relatively southeast under the influence of plate tectonics. The rate of slippage averages about 33 to 37 millimeters (1.3 to 1.5 in) a year across California.