View a map of the world's major earthquakes from 1956 to 2022, which can be used to identify tectonic plate boundaries.

View maps of seafloor topography, earthquakes, and volcanic activity, which scientists use to create outlines of Earth's tectonic plates.

View the past month of earthquakes worldwide with this digital globe, which displays data from the US Geological Survey.

Explore an interactive map of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis from 2150 BCE to the present.

The Ring of Fire, which spans 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles) around the Pacific Ocean, is the most geologically active region on Earth.

View the 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded as of 2025, led by a 1960 magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile, which left about 2 million people unhoused.

Deep-sea trenches form when one tectonic plate subducts another underwater

Oceanic plates sink when colliding with less dense continental plates, bending the seafloor into steep depressions that can be almost 11 kilometers deep. Many of Earth’s strongest earthquakes occur at these plate boundaries, often featuring volcanic activity.

The frequency of earthquakes and the distribution of their magnitudes have not changed significantly over long-term records, but technological improvements have enabled scientists to detect more of them as they occur.

The San Andreas Fault is an example of tectonic plates sliding past each other

The transform boundary divides the opposing movements of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, which create shear zones that distort and fracture rock. These movements produce shallow earthquakes as rocks are gradually displaced hundreds of miles.

Earth’s major tectonic plates make up 95% of its surface

Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth’s lithosphere, which consists of the crust and the solid, upper layer of the mantle. Segments of major plates can break and form minor or microplates, whose total number varies based on ongoing geological activity.

Tectonic earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates sliding past one another at fault zones, deforming rock through friction as energy builds like a stretched rubber band.

Explore case studies of each type of convergent plate boundary

At these boundaries, a collision of two oceanic plates produces a curved chain of volcanic islands, like those seen in the Caribbean. A continental-continental plate collision results in plates buckling upward, forming large mountain ranges.

Explore an interactive timeline of Earth's 4.5-billion-year history to visualize shifting landmasses and oceans, view the locations of significant asteroid impacts, and learn about major geological and biological events.

Simulate geological activity at plate boundaries using virtual planetary models.

View examples of rift valleys, the product of surface divergent boundaries

At these boundaries, tectonic plates move apart, stretching and thinning Earth’s crust as long valleys are formed from smaller, interconnected valleys and troughs. Ongoing rifting and erosion can further sink the valley, becoming a rift lake if volcanic activity becomes inactive.

Visualize the power and frequency of earthquakes across the moment magnitude scale, where a whole number increase corresponds to about 32 times more energy released.

If, not when: An earthquake is destined to destroy the Pacific Northwest.

When the Cascadia fault line ruptures, it could be North America’s worst natural disaster in recorded history. Read a deep dive into the history of the region and the potential impact of the eventual seismic boom.

Scientists determined that tectonic plates moved the ocean floor by observing symmetric patterns of magnetic stripes on opposite sides of underwater volcano systems, which could only result from seafloor spreading.

Scientists determine earthquake locations by comparing how long it takes different seismic waves to be detected at three stations around the world, from which an origin, or hypocenter, can be triangulated.

Watch 1 billion years of tectonic plate movement in 40 seconds

Researchers at the University of Sydney developed the model, incorporating changing plate boundaries rather than just moving continents, to better understand the changes to biological and climatic systems throughout Earth’s history.

Most volcanic activity occurs in submarine volcanoes on the seafloor

At divergent plate boundaries in mid-ocean ridges, volcanic activity produces new ocean crust as the seafloor spreads. These areas are home to underwater mountains with extensive biodiversity due to redirecting ocean currents and concentrating food for marine life.

What is the Cascadia subduction zone?

A look at the Cascadia subduction zone, where the historical record suggests the Pacific Northwest is due for a devastating mega-earthquake in the coming years.

Although earthquakes cause about 80% of tsunamis, almost all earthquakes lack sufficient energy to cause the sudden shift in the ocean floor needed to substantially displace enormous volumes of water.

Predicting earthquakes is difficult because different rock types can withstand different amounts of stress before breaking and melt at different temperatures within Earth's interior, introducing uncertainty into predictive models.

Some earthquakes can produce smaller tremors called boomerang earthquakes, which travel in the opposite direction and ripple back to the original earthquake's source.

The world's largest earthquake simulator is an 800-ton shake table facility in Miki, Japan, which was built to test the resilience of structures after the 1995 Kobe earthquake killed over 6,000 people.

Records of Earth's magnetic field on the seafloor validated plate tectonics

Matching glacial, fossil, and rock records, mountain ranges, and continental shapes across oceans was insufficient evidence for continental drift. Precise measurements of magnetic minerals on the ocean floor revealed seafloor spreading, which could only be explained by moving landmasses.

200 million years of tectonic plate movement

The Earth's internal forces have continuously pushed and reshaped how the planet's land masses are arranged. From one supercontinent hundreds of millions of years ago, to present day, the Earth has looked dramatically different throughout the...

What makes the Earth shake?

Researchers are demystifying the science of earthquakes—from their origins deep within the Earth to the scales that measure their strength. This article, which was part of a series of weekly reports from Cornell University, serves as a guide to...

Convection flows in Earth’s mantle drive the movement of tectonic plates

These processes transfer heat from Earth’s core to the surface via rising magma plumes, while cooler, denser rock falls into the mantle at rates similar to human fingernail growth. These rates are determined by combining seismic data with computer simulations to model Earth’s interior.

When oceanic plates sink beneath tectonic ones, they can generate magma

At converging oceanic-continental plate boundaries, the subduction of the oceanic plate introduces seawater that reduces the melting temperature of the overlying mantle. This causes it to melt into less dense magma, which can rise to fuel more volcanic activity.

Some tectonic plates move faster than their underlying convection currents

Like a chain slipping off a ledge, as tectonic plates sink, their weight can pull the rest of the trailing plate forward, accelerating their movement. Plates can also break apart and fall, creating a suction effect that drives movement, resembling leaves following a passing car.

Explore an interactive time-lapse of reported tsunami events since 1850, with identified cause, recorded observations, known deaths, and other information available for each.

How the Turkish earthquake created a 100-mile rupture

A February 2023 earthquake devastated parts of Turkey and Syria destroying entire blocks, with more than 50,000 people killed. A scientific analysis revealed a fault line with a 100-mile-long rupture, where separate tectonic plates moved more than...

Underwater volcanoes significantly contributes to marine extinctions during the Triassic period

An analysis of ocean basins in the Tibetan Plateau helped identify three major periods of volcanism—250-248, 233-231, and 210-208 million years ago—which released significant amounts of greenhouse gases, altering ocean chemistry. The low-oxygen conditions may help explain half of Earth's Triassic extinctions.

How melting ice impacts the whole world

Melting glaciers and ice caps are far from where most people live, but their impact can be felt across the planet. Visit four places—the American West, a Himalayan valley, the northern Atlantic, and Texas—with this immersive interactive to see the various impacts of melting ice around the world.

View a tsunami travel time map to learn how many hours its waves are estimated to take to reach different parts of Earth when originating from a list of geologically active locations.

Rather than predicting them in advance, earthquake early warning systems detect tremors moments after they begin and send notifications that reach users before the seismic activity does.

Some maps may incorrectly identify the boundaries of a solar eclipse's totality because they assume the Earth is a smooth surface.

Ten impact craters you can visit

See photos of ten wild Earth impact craters across the world, the result of impacts occurring between thousands and millions of years ago.

American oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp's discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which supported the idea that continents move over time, was initially dismissed as 'girl talk.'

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

See a map of the Maya civilization and its major historical sites

This interactive map showcases the full geographic extent of the Maya civilization, highlighting major archaeological sites across Mexico and Central America. Explore where Maya cities once stood—and where their ruins can still be visited today.

The theory of plate tectonics first emerged from the theory of continental drift

German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were all one giant landmass in the past, which he named Pangaea. Despite geological and climate evidence suggesting continental movement, his theory was dismissed until the 1960s.

Just as light bends at different angles as it travels through different materials, seismic waves move in different directions through Earth's interior, revealing the presence of layers with varying properties.

Visualize population densities around the world represented as geographic terrain and how those densities changed from 1900 to 1975 to 2015.

View a map of the distribution of mineral resources on the seafloor

Polymetallic nodules are found in regions near the middle of the Pacific Ocean, along the eastern coast of South America, and along the western coast of Africa, while cobalt-rich crusts span significant portions of the Pacific tropics east of the Philippines. Polymetallic sulfide deposits occur at tectonic plate boundaries, including areas within national jurisdictions.

Ancient sunken plates may influence mantle convection and surface motion

Research suggests sunken tectonic plates can collide, assemble, and break apart to form structures called large low-velocity provinces. LLVPs can significantly enrich rising magma plumes with elements commonly seen on Earth’s surface.

Thunderquakes—seismic waves created when lightning strikes the ground—have enabled scientists to image underground environments near Earth's surface by detecting vibrations along subterranean fiber-optic cables.

Earthquakes of identical magnitudes are unlikely to cause equal damage because magnitude only measures energy released, and earthquake severity depends on environmental factors, such as local architecture and geological conditions.

Because the Richter scale was calibrated to crustal and mantle properties in Southern California, seismologists have instead used the moment magnitude scale to quantify earthquakes since the 1970s.