Plate Boundaries

<div><span style='text-align:justify;'><font color='#000000' face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, normal'><span style='font-size:14px;'>The surface of the Earth is broken up into large plates.  There are seven major plates: North America, South America, Eurasia, Africa, India, the Pacific, and Antarctica.  There are also numerous microplates.  The number and shapes of the plates change over geologic time.  Plates are divided by boundaries that are seismically active.  The different plate boundaries can be described by the type of motion that is occurring between the plates at specific locations.  </span></font></span></div><div style='text-align:center;'><img alt='Mid-Atlantic Ridge' src='https://i.imgur.com/y75ctBQ.jpg' /></div><div><span style='text-align:justify;'><font color='#000000' face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, normal'><span style='font-size:14px;'>Ocean basins contain spreading ridges where the youngest portions of the seafloor are found.  At the spreading ridges magma is released as it pushes up from the mantle and new oceanic crust is formed.  At subduction zone boundaries plates are moving toward each other, with one plate subducting or moving beneath the other.  When this occurs the crust is pushed into the mantle where it is recycled into magma.</span></font></span></div><div style='text-align:center;'><img alt='Subduction Zone' src='https://imgur.com/doH9bW4.jpg' /></div><div><span style='text-align:justify;'><font color='#000000' face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, normal'><span style='font-size:14px;'><div><span style='text-align:justify;'><font color='#000000' face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, normal'><span style='font-size:14px;'>Data accessed from here: </span></font></span><font face='Avenir Next, Avenir, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif'><span style='font-size:15px;'>https://www-udc.ig.utexas.edu/external/plates/data.htm</span></font></div></span></font></span></div>