Introducing Tectonic Plates

Think about the last time you put together a puzzle. There were several pieces of all different shapes that fit together to form a finished picture. The Earth is kind of like a giant puzzle, made up of large pieces called "tectonic plates." These plates are part of the crust and mantle, known as the lithosphere.

There are seven main plates that you need to know:

African Plate
Antarctic Plate
Eurasian Plate
Indo-Australian Plate
North American Plate
Pacific Plate
South American Plate

Notice the different plates, marked by different colors

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See the map of the world? It looks different, doesn't it? Each color represents a different plate. See if you can find the seven main plates. The African plate is in dark orange on the right side of the screen. The Antarctic plate is in blue at the bottom. The Eurasian plate is in green and wraps around on both the right and left. The Indo-Australian plate is in light orange, and also wraps around on the right and left edges of the map. The North American plate is in brown at the top. The Pacific plate is in yellow on the left. The South American plate is in purple in the middle.

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