These options bring up earthquake icons with moment magnitude, timing and depth from the USGS's earthquake database; active volcano icons with volcano types and eruption histories from the Smithsonian Institution's volcano database; and colour-coded
tectonic plate boundaries defined by the USGS (Figure 2).
A few hundred miles off the Pacific Northwest coast, a small
tectonic plate called the Juan de Fuca slowly is sliding under the North American continent.
The obedient 4-year-old then demonstrated the
tectonic plates 'under under under' the ground, as she put a cloth - the makeshift
tectonic plate - on the floor.
Usually, most large tsunamis occur due to megathrust earthquakes caused where a
tectonic plate slides below another and one plate suddenly lurches upwards, pushing a large volume of water up (see image on right).
By calculating this ratio in the mantle beneath the crust, and considering how this process would affect the bulk Earth over long periods of time, a rough timeline of Earth's
tectonic plate cycling can be established.
A volcano forms on a
tectonic plate above a mantle plume.
Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula sits on the boundary where the Cocos
tectonic plate slips beneath the Caribbean Plate.
On which
tectonic plate is the Yellowstone hot spot located?
The quake ocurred at the boundary between the Antarctic
tectonic plate and the Scotia Sea plate, said geophysicist Randy Baldwin at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado.
The reason is that the Iranian government is not open about its nuclear programme and the country sits on the boundaries of more than one
tectonic plate. It is considered as one of the world's major seismic fault zone.