Book 12, Question 68
Why Do Plate Maps Look Like Jigsaw Puzzles?
Plate maps look like jigsaw puzzles because the plates really do fit together! The edges follow lines of earthquakes, volcanoes, and ridges. When people marked those on a map, big puzzle pieces appeared.
More fun facts
- Tectonic plates have uneven, irregular shapes, which is why a plate map looks like a jigsaw puzzle.
- Plates can be anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across, and the Pacific and Antarctic plates are among the largest.
- Most plate edges cannot be seen because they are hidden under the oceans, but satellites can map ocean plate boundaries from space.
- Plates have been drifting since early in Earth's 4.6 billion year history, like slow bumper cars that bunch together and then spread apart.
- Geologists sort plate edges into four kinds: places where plates pull apart, push together, slide past each other, and broad zones that are hard to pin down.
- At those broad plate boundary zones, the edges are not clearly defined and the effects of the plates meeting are unclear.
- Most plates carry both continent rock and ocean rock, so one plate can hold land and seafloor together.
Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey
Questions kids ask
Do plate pieces fit together perfectly like a puzzle?
They touch along their edges, but unlike a puzzle, plates move, grow at some edges and get destroyed at others.
How do scientists draw plate maps?
They map where earthquakes and volcanoes cluster and use satellites to measure the ocean floor.