This Planet Is The Only One That Has Plate Tectonics

Spoiler alert: it’s Earth. 

Plate tectonics refers to the movement of the plates in our planet’s lithosphere. These are fragmented pieces of the crust and upper mantle. They collide, spread apart, uplift, and subduct, creating the lands and bodies of water we see today and other diverse surface features. 

This phenomenon affects our planet. These plates can form mountains, volcanic island chains, and resize oceans. They can also slowly break continents apart. This feature can only be found on Earth. While scientists don’t have the full scope of the universe beyond us, the other celestial bodies in our solar system do not possess plate tectonics. 

These experts hypothesize that our planet's internal heat and vast water allow Earth’s plates to flow and slide around. Read more about our planet’s plate tectonics here. 

Image credit: A. El-Aziz Khairy Ebd el-aal, Egyptian National Seismological Network, 2011

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