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Foundational overview: what tectonic settings are, why they matter, and the big-picture categories of plate interactions.
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Detailed look at convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries, including structure, movement, and typical features.
Mechanics driving tectonic activity: mantle convection, slab pull, ridge push, rifting, and transform motion.
Tectonic plates move due to convection in the mantle. Hot mantle material slowly rises, cools, and sinks, dragging plates along. Two key mechanisms are slab pull, where dense subducting edges pull the rest of the plate downward, and ridge push, where gravity drives newly formed lithosphere away from mid-ocean ridges. Together, these processes cause the plates to converge, diverge, and slide past one another, driving geological activity at faults, volcanoes, and earthquakes.
Slab pull is the downward gravitational force when a cold, dense plate sinks at subduction zones, pulling the rest of the plate; ridge push is the gravitational force that pushes lithosphere away from elevated mid-ocean ridges; mantle flow refers to convection currents in the mantle that drive and modulate plate motions.
Pangaea begins to break apart, thinning continental lithosphere and forming rift basins.
Normal faulting widens the rift; volcanism fills basins with volcanic rocks.
Continental margins subsidence allows a developing seaway, creating a proto-ocean basin.
Mid-ocean ridge begins to pull apart oceanic crust; the basin widens.
Active seafloor spreading creates expanding oceanic crust and clearer margins.
Ocean basin grows; oceanic crust cools and thickens away from spreading centers.
Ridge jumps and margin formation continue, reshaping basin boundaries.
The basin persists with ongoing seafloor spreading at ridges and passive margins.
Surface and subsurface features formed by tectonics and the associated geological hazards (earthquakes, volcanism, tsunamis).
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Practice, assessment, and resources to reinforce understanding and apply knowledge to real-world problems.
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Issued on
October 9, 2025
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