Earth is action-packed. Even if there were zero life on our planet, the place would be full of birth and death, marriage, breakup and even a little dirty dancing. That’s all thanks to the lithosphere, a solid layer of crust and part of the upper mantle that’s broken into more than a dozen slabs, or plates, of varying sizes. These pieces, divided between older continental crust and younger oceanic crust, ride atop the gooey asthenosphere, a semiliquid layer of magma and partly melted rock.
Most of us may think of Earth’s cracked and creeping crust only when we hear of a catastrophic event caused by it, such as an earthquake or volcanic eruption. But the puzzle pieces of the lithosphere are always in motion, slamming against one another, grinding past or getting shoved under another slab. More than a mere geological mosh pit, the plates play a key role in climate and evolution.
Types of Plates
Continental: Crust that’s older and thicker, made of lighter-weight rock.
Oceanic: Younger and thinner, oceanic crust is made of relatively heavier rock.
