15.2: Plate Tectonics

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Page ID: 55241

Robert Wagner
HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College

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This section introduces plate tectonics, the theory that Earth’s lithosphere is divided into moving plates. It traces the development of the idea from Alfred Wegener’s proposal of continental drift to the modern theory of plate tectonics, and examines the processes occurring at divergent, convergent, and transform plate boundaries. It also considers the forces and mechanisms responsible for plate motion.

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