+ Visit NASA.gov + Advanced Search   + About the Server   + Animation List   + How to Use the Server Previous Animation Next Animation Tectonic Plates and Plate Boundaries (WMS) The Earth's crust is constantly in motion. Sections of the crust, called plates, push against each other due to forces from the molten interior of the Earth. The areas where these plates collide often have increased volcanic and earthquake activity. These images show the locations of the plates and their boundaries in the Earth's crust. Convergent boundaries are areas where two plates are pushing against each other and one plate may be subducting under another. Divergent boundaries have two plates pulling away from each other and indicate regions where new land could be created. Transform boundaries are places where two plates are sliding against each other in opposite directions, and diffuse boundaries are places where two plates have the same relative motion. Numerous small microplates have been omitted from the plate image. These images have been derived from images made available by the United States Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Program.    An image of the Earth's major tectonic plates. Available formats:   1024 x 512       PNG 9 KB   320 x 160         JPEG 4 KB   320 x 120         PNG 28 KB   160 x 80           PNG   1 KB   80 x 40             PNG     960 B This product is available through our Web Map Service.   Click here to learn more.    Color Bar for previous image. Available formats:   320 x 120         PNG 28 KB    This image shows the plate boundaries in the Earth's crust. It is meant to be overlaid on a background image of the world, such as the image below. Available formats:   1024 x 512       PNG 46 KB   320 x 160         JPEG 10 KB   160 x 80           PNG   9 KB   320 x 60           PNG 11 KB   80 x 40             PNG   2 KB This product is available through our Web Map Service.   Click here to learn more.    Color Bar for previous image. Available formats:   320 x 60           PNG 11 KB    An image of the Earth's major tectonic plates, with the plate boundary types indicated. Available formats:   1024 x 512       PNG 76 KB   320 x 160         JPEG 4 KB    A combined image of the Earth's plates, plate boundaries, and ocean bathymetry. Available formats:   1024 x 512       PNG 681 KB   320 x 160         PNG 89 KB    This image shows the topography of the oceans bottom as a false-color relief map. Available formats:   1024 x 512       PNG 753 KB   160 x 80           PNG 24 KB   320 x 160         JPEG 16 KB   80 x 40             PNG   6 KB Animation Number: 2953 Animators: Eric Sokolowsky (Lead)   Horace Mitchell Studio: SVS Completed: 2004-06-14 Scientist: Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC) Instrument: Airborne Topographic Mapper Series: WMS Keywords: DLESE >> Geology SVS >> Plate Tectonics SVS >> Plate boundaries GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Solid Earth >> Tectonics >> Plate Boundaries More Information on this topic available at: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/plate_tectonics/plates.html Google Earth KML file is available here. DEPC Metadata is available here.     Please give credit for this visualization to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Back to Top + Privacy Policy and Important Notices + Reproduction Guidelines NASA Official: SVS Contact: Curator: