Tectonic Plates

Earthquakes cluster along plate boundaries. Blue lines trace major boundaries; red arrows show each plate's drift direction and speed (mm/year). Recent M2.5+ quakes are overlaid to reveal the correlation.

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Plate motion (absolute velocities)

Pacific

70 mm/yr

North American

23 mm/yr

South American

27 mm/yr

Eurasian

24 mm/yr

African

25 mm/yr

Indo-Australian

60 mm/yr

Antarctic

18 mm/yr

Nazca

65 mm/yr

Velocities are approximate, for visualization. Plates move only centimeters per year — there is no second-by-second movement to stream; the arrows represent long-term average drift.