Question

: How many major tectonic plates does the earth’s crust have?
A. Seven
B. Eight
C. Three
D. Four

Answer 1

Hint: The Earth’s is formed of several concentric lines and the outermost layer is known as the earth’s crust. The crust is formed of the continental crust about 20-80 km thick spread over about 40% of earth and the rest is 8 km oceanic crust.

Complete answer:The earth’s crust is a rocky structure comprising the granite and basaltic rocks. The crust and some part of the next layer Mantle forms the Lithosphere. This lithosphere is formed of seven major and several medium & minor tectonic plates.
Tectonic plates can be seen as large rock slabs constituting both continental and oceanic lithosphere. These plates are able to move because of convection caused by earth’s interior and pull of gravitational forces. In the 1960s geologists came up with the plate tectonics theory, which argues about the movement of these said plates. The movement led them to come together or go in separate ways or one circumvents another.
Converging plates as come together lead to one plate going under another and this results in formation of mountains and plateaus. Diverging plates on other hand lead to creation of rifts. Volcanic activities are very characteristic of these rifts. In the case of plates passing each other, there appear fault lines. These mostly occur in oceans, but examples are there on land as well. Fault lines are very prone to earthquakes.
Plate tectonics gives us the information regarding the formation of continents and present geographical features over the world.
Hence, option A is the correct answer.

Note: Tectonic plate movement is directly responsible for volcanic and seismic activities so a constant check is done with the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers.