What is a Plate tectonics?

Question

what is it? (( Homework ))

Answer 1

It's literally large pieces of the earth's crust that land masses and oceans are on top of. When the plates slide past each other, they create earthquakes and mountains. For example the earthquake in Southern California recently was caused by the plates at the San Andreas Fault (California resides on two different tectonic plates). Read more at the link below.

Answer 2

Plate tectonics is the study of colossal underground "plates" that shift around. Deep underground there are massive "plates" of rock that shift in different directions. They make one of the layers of the Earth's crust. There are several of these plates, although I forget how many there are. These plates move in different directions, and when two of them collide, they form an earthquake. They can collide in two ways: they can crash into each other and begin pushing rocks up where they meet, forming mountains, or one can slide over the other.  If I remember correctly, volcanoes are also connected to the plates, but don't quote me on that.