Tectonic Plates Puzzle: Earth Geology Education Game

Tectonic Plates Puzzle is a free educational geography map game about the structure of the Earth's lithosphere. By sorting the 15 major and minor tectonic plates across the world map, this drag-and-drop interactive exercise serves as a fantastic "Minute to win it" tool for online science lessons, interactive geology classes, and exciting homework assignments regarding the dynamic surface of our planet.

What is Plate Tectonics? Plate tectonics is a scientific theory describing the large-scale motion of the plates making up the Earth's lithosphere since tectonic processes began between 3.3 and 3.5 billion years ago. The model builds heavily on the concept of continental drift—an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community universally accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of our planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken into various tectonic plates. Where these plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary: convergent, divergent, or transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formations constantly occur along these plate boundaries. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 100 millimeters annually!

Cumulative with the Tectonic Plates Quiz.