Glossary
Tectonic Plate
The Earth's surface is broken into large rigid plates, a few tens to about a hundred kilometres thick. They ride on a hotter, softer layer of the mantle, the asthenosphere, and move a few centimetres a year, roughly as fast as fingernails grow.
Most earthquakes and volcanoes are found along their boundaries, where plates pull apart, come together or slide past each other. The model used on the map has 52 plates.
Examples on the Map
Other Definitions
- Subduction
- Mid-Ocean Ridge
- Transform Fault
- Fault
- Earthquake, Epicentre and Hypocentre
- Magnitude
- Intensity (Mercalli Scale)
- Aftershock
- Tsunami
- Active Volcano
- Stratovolcano
- Shield Volcano
- Caldera
- Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)
- Pyroclastic Flow
- Lahar
- Hotspot
- Tropical Cyclone, Hurricane, Typhoon
- Saffir-Simpson Scale
- Aurora and Kp Index