This is a drawing of the Earth's lithosphere.
Click on image for full size
Clues to Plate Movements
Many kinds of surface features are clues to a sliding
lithosphere.
Two types of features can form when plates move apart. At ocean ridges, the crust splits apart to make room for molten mantle rock. Continental rifts form when a continent begins to split apart.
When two plates move towards each other, sometimes one of the plates is forced to go down into Earth’s hot interior at a subduction zone and volcanoes form nearby. Or, if neither plate is subducted, the two will crash into each other forming huge mountains.
These features are special clues that prove our planet's surface is in motion. There are only a few other planets that have clues like these.
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Many forces change the surface of the Earth over time. The largest force that changes our planet's surface is movement of Earth's outer layer in a process called plate tectonics. As shown in this picture,
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When two sections of the Earth's crust collide, one slab of lithosphere can be forced back down into the deeper regions of the Earth, as shown in this picture. The slab that is forced back into the Earth
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