GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The plates can be thought of like pieces of a cracked shell that rest on the hot, molten rock of Earth’s mantle and fit snugly against one another. The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other.

Detailed explanation-2: -Geologists believe this motion is driven by convection in Earth’s mantle which causes hot rock to rise and cooler rock to sink. When the denser tectonic plate dives beneath another plate it is due to the high energy by the Earth’s gravity that pushes into the mantle.

Detailed explanation-3: -If two tectonic plates collide, they form a convergent plate boundary. Usually, one of the converging plates will move beneath the other, a process known as subduction. Deep trenches are features often formed where tectonic plates are being subducted and earthquakes are common at subduction zones as well.

Detailed explanation-4: -The realization that Earth’s land masses move was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, which he called continental drift.