Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth's crust and upper mantle called the lithosphere and are about 100 km thick. There are two main types of plates: oceanic and continental, each composed of different materials. The formation and movement of these plates generates everything from the shape and orientation of continents to the mountains and trenches on Earth. The plates layer shows major and minor plates. Microplates are not included in this map. This version of the tectonic plates and boundaries was derived from Peter Bird in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, 4(3), 1027, [doi:10.1029/2001GC000252]. The full publication can be read here. Processing of the 2014 version of the data into GIS formats was done by Hugo Ahlenius.

The Earth’s lithosphere is made up of a series of plates that float on the mantle. Scientists think the convection of the mantle causes these plates to move triggering earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain-building events, or trench formation. These plates creep along at a rate of approximately five to ten centimeters (two to four inches) per year.There are two compositions of a tectonic plate, oceanic and continental. Oceanic plates or sections of plates are denser and occur below the ocean as its name implies. The Pacific Plate is an example of an oceanic plate. Continental crust supports land above water and is thought to be less dense and thicker than oceanic crust. Most plates are a mix of both oceanic and continental crust such as the African Plate. The African Plate has continental crust along most of the eastern edge and oceanic crust to the west along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. These plates move in primarily three main ways. They slide past one another along transform (strike-slip) boundaries, they push against each other at convergent boundaries, or pull away in opposite directions at divergent boundaries. Each one of these interactions create different types of landforms. For example, the steady pressure of the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate built the Himalaya mountains and the Plateau of Tibet. The divergent boundary between the African Plate and the Arabian formed the Red Sea.Use this plate map layer to explore how the movement of the plates cause earthquakes, volcanoes, or shape Earth’s landscape.

This map layer features both major and minor plates, but excludes microplates. The data is from the scientific study by Peter Bird published in volume 4, issue 3 of Geochemisty, Geophysics, Geosystems and was translated into geospatial formats by Hugo Ahlenius and updated by Dan Pisut.

The global tectonics data compilation is a set of raster and vector data that are useful for investigating tectonics past and present. The datasets are useful on their own or can be used in GIS software, which includes the QGIS project file for convenience. The datasets include our new models for tectonic plate boundaries and deformation zones, geologic provinces and orogens. Additional datasets include earthquake and volcano locations, geochronology, topography, magnetics, gravity, and seismic velocity. The global tectonics collection is suitable for research and educational purposes. We would like to continue to update the plate and province models to keep them current and accurate. If you wish to participate, you may contact D. Hasterok or visit the GitHub repository (https://github.com/dhasterok/global_tectonics).

The surface of the Earth is broken up into large plates. There are seven major plates: North America, South America, Eurasia, Africa, India, the Pacific, and Antarctica. There are also numerous microplates. The number and shapes of the plates change over geologic time. Plates are divided by boundaries that are seismically active. The different plate boundaries can be described by the type of motion that is occurring between the plates at specific locations. Ocean basins contain spreading ridges where the youngest portions of the seafloor are found. At the spreading ridges magma is released as it pushes up from the mantle and new oceanic crust is formed. At subduction zone boundaries plates are moving toward each other, with one plate subducting or moving beneath the other. When this occurs the crust is pushed into the mantle where it is recycled into magma.Data accessed from here: https://www-udc.ig.utexas.edu/external/plates/data.htm

117 original plate boundaries from Esri Data and Maps (2007) edited to better match 10 years of earthquakes, land forms and bathymetry from Mapping Our World's WSI_Earth image from module 2. Esri Canada's education layer of plate boundaries and the Smithsonian's ascii file from the download section of the 'This Dynamic Planet' site plate boundaries were used to compare the resulting final plate boundaries for significant differences.

This map can be used:- to study the motion of the plates- to study phenomena taking place at plate boundaries- to visualize processes taking place.

This feature service depicts the boundaries of the Earth's tectonic plates and major fault lines and areas.Tectonic plates are large plates of rock that make up the foundation of the Earth's crust and the shape of the continents. The plates comprise the bottom of the crust and the top of the Earth's mantle. The plates are most famously known for being the source of earthquakes.A fault is a fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the movement of tectonic plates.Feature service published and hosted by Esri Canada © 2020.Content Source(s):Plates, United States Geological Survey (USGS)Fault Lines, United States Geological Survey(USGS)Coordinate System: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100)This work is licensed under the Web Services and API Terms of Use.View Summary | View Terms of Use This data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Canada License

Named Landforms of the World (NLW) contains four sub-layers representing geomorphological landforms, provinces, divisions, and their respective cartographic boundaries. The latter is to support map making, while the first three represent basic units such landforms comprise provinces, and provinces comprise divisions. NLW is a substantial update to World Named Landforms in both compilation method and the attributes that describe each landform.For more details, please refer to our paper, Named Landforms of the World: A Geomorphological and Physiographic Compilation, in Annals of the American Assocation of Geographers.Landforms are commonly defined as natural features on the surface of the Earth. The National Geographic Society specifies terrain as the basis for landforms and lists four major types: mountains, hills, plateaus, and plains. Here, however, we define landforms in a richer way that includes properties relating to underlying geologic structure, erosional and depositional character, and tectonic setting and processes. These characteristics were asserted by Dr. Richard E. Murphy in 1968 in his map, titled Landforms of the World. We blended Murphy's definition for landforms with the work E.M. Bridges, who in his 1990 book, World Geomorphology, provided a globally consistent description of geomorphological divisions, provinces, and sections to give names to the landform regions of the world. AttributeDescription Bridges Full NameFull name from E.M. Bridges' 1990 "World Geomorphology" Division and if present province and section - intended for labeling print maps of small extents. Bridges DivisionGeomorphological Division as described in E.M. Bridges' 1990 "World Geomorphology" - All Landforms have a division assigned, i.e., no nulls. Bridges ProvinceGeomorphological Province as described in E.M. Bridges' 1990 "World Geomorphology" - Not all divisions are subdivided into provinces. Bridges SectionGeomorphological Section as described in E.M. Bridges' 1990 "World Geomorphology" - Not all provinces are subdivided into sections. StructureLandform Structure as described in Richard E. Murphy's 1968 "Landforms of the World" map. Coded Value Domain. Values include: - Alpine Systems: Area of mountains formed by orogenic (collisions of tectonic plates) processes in the past 350 to 500 million years. - Caledonian/Hercynian Shield Remnants: Area of mountains formed by orogenic (collisions of tectonic plates) processes 350 to 500 million years ago. - Gondwana or Laurasian Shields: Area underlaid by mostly crystalline rock formations fromed one billion or more years ago and unbroken by tectonic processes. - Rifted Shield Areas: fractures or spreading along or adjacent to tectonic plate edges. - Isolated Volcanic Areas: volcanic activity occurring outside of Alpine Systems and Rifted Shields. - Sedimentary: Areas of deposition occurring within the past 2.5 million years Moist or DryLandform Erosional/Depositional variable as described in Richard E. Murphy's 1968 "Landforms of the World" map. Coded Value Domain. Values include: - Moist: where annual aridity index is 1.0 or higher, which implies precipitation is absorbed or lost via runoff. - Dry: where annual aridity index is less than 1.0, which implies more precipitation evaporates before it can be absorbed or lost via runoff. TopographicLandform Topographic type variable as described in Richard E. Murphy's 1968 "Landforms of the World" map. Karagulle et. al. 2017 - based on rich morphometric characteristics. Coded Value Domain. Values include: - Plains: Areas with less than 90-meters of relief and slopes under 20%. - Hills: Areas with 90- to 300-meters of local relief. - Mountains: Areas with over 300-meters of relief - High Tablelands: Areas with over 300-meters of relief and 50% of highest elevation areas are of gentle slope. - Depressions or Basins: Areas of land surrounded land of higher elevation. Glaciation TypeLandform Erosional/Depositional variable as described in Richard E. Murphy's 1968 "Landforms of the World" map. Values include: - Wisconsin/Wurm Glacial Extent: Areas of most recent glaciation which formed 115,000 years ago and ended 11,000 years ago. - Pre-Wisconsin/Wurm Glacial Extent: Areas subjected only to glaciation prior to 140,000 years ago. ContinentAssigned by Author during data compilation. Bridges Short NameThe name of the smallest of Division, Province, or Section containing this landform feature. Murphy Landform CodeCombination of Richard E. Murphy's 1968 "Landforms of the World" variables expressed as a 3- or 4- letter notation. Used to label medium scale maps. Area_GeoGeodesic area in km2. Primary PlateName of tectonic plate that either completely underlays this landform feature or underlays the largest portion of the landform's area. Secondary PlateWhen a landform is underlaid by two or more tectonic plates, this is the plate that underlays the second largest area. 3rd PlateWhen a landform is underlaid by three or more tectonic plates, this is the plate that underlays the third largest area. 4th PlateWhen a landform is underlaid by four or more tectonic plates, this is the plate that underlays the fourth largest area. 5th PlateWhen a landform is underlaid by five tectonic plates, this is the plate that underlays the fifth largest area. NotesContains standard text to convey additional tectonic process characteristics. Tectonic ProcessAssigns values of orogenic, rift zone, or above subducting plate.

These data are also available as an ArcGIS Pro Map Package: Named_Landforms_of_the_World_v2.0.mpkx.These data supersede the earlier v1.0: World Named Landforms.Change Log:

DateDescription of Change July 20, 2022Corrected spelling of Guiana from incorrect representation, "Guyana", used by Bridges. July 27, 2022Corrected Structure coded value domain value, changing "Caledonian/Hercynian Shield" to "Caledonian , Hercynian, or Appalachian Remnants".

Cite as:Frye, C., Sayre R., Pippi, M., Karagulle, Murphy, A., D. Soller, D.R., Gilbert, M., and Richards, J., 2022. Named Landforms of the World. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33178.93129. Accessed on:

This layer shows the interpreted surface locations of active plate and microplate boundaries, in and around Te Riu-a-Māui / Zealandia. The layer was newly-compiled for, and is part of, the 'Tectonic map of Te Riu-a-Māui / Zealandia' 1:8 500 000 dataset.

Help students visualise plate boundaries on a spherical Earth, rather than on a flat map. The model shows plate boundaries and land masses, and highlights our own Indo-Australian plate. Ready to cut out and construct (basketball required). Assembly instructions included. Suitable for primary Years 5 - 6 and secondary Years 7 - 12.

the precise location and geometry of oceanic spreading centers and associated transform faults or discontinuities' boundary has fundamental implications in our understanding of oceanic accretion, the accommodation of deformation around rigid lithospheric blocks, and the distribution of magmatic and volcanic processes. the now widely used location of mid oceanic ridges worldwide, published by p. bird in 2003, can be updated based on recent publicly available and published ship-based multibeam swath bathymetry data (100-m resolution or better), now available to ~25% of the ocean seafloor, but covering a significant proportion of the mid-ocean ridge system (>70%).here we publish the mapridges database built under the coordination of cgmw (commission for the geological map of the world), with a first version v1.0 (06/2024) that provides high resolution and up-to-date datasets of mid-ocean ridge segments and associated transform faults, and follow-up updates that will also include non-transform offsets.the detailed mapping of individual mid oceanic ridge segments was conducted using gmrt (ryan et al., 2009) (version 4.2 for mapridges v1.0), other publicly available datasets (e.g., ncei, pangaea, awi), and existing literature. mapridges will be revised with the acquisition of additional datasets, new publications, and correction of any errors in the database.the mapridge database was built in a gis environment, where each feature holds several attributes specific to the dataset. we include three different georeferenced shapefile layers: 1) ridge segments, 2) transform faults, and 3) transform zones. the latest corresponds to zones of distributed strike-slip deformation that lack a well-defined fault localizing strain, but that are often treated as transform faults.1) the ridge segments layer contains 1461 segments with 9 attributes: area_loca: the name of the ridge system loc_short: the short form of the ridge system using 3 characters lat: the maximum latitude of the ridge segment long: the maximum longitude of the ridge segment length: the length of the ridge segment in meters confidence: the degree of confidence on digitization based on the availability of high-resolution bathymetry data: 1 = low to medium confidence, 2 = high confidence references: supporting references used for the digitization name_code: unique segment code constructed from the loc_short and lat attributes in degree, minute, second coordinate format name_lit: name of the segment from the literature if it exists2) the transform fault layer contains 260 segments with 4 attributes: name_tf: name of the transform fault according to the literature length: length of the transform fault in meters lat: the maximum latitude of the fault segment long: the maximum longitude of the fault segment3) the transform zone layer contains 10 segments with 4 attributes: name_tf: name of the transform zone according to the literature length: length of the transform fault in meters lat: the maximum latitude of the fault segment long: the maximum longitude of the fault segmentto facilitate revisions and updates of the database, relevant information, corrections, or data could be sent to b. sautter (benjamin.sautter@univ-ubs.fr) and j. escartín (escartin@geologie.ens.fr).

This map depicts one year of global earthquakes and plate boundaries. Click on an earthquake for details about that event. Data is from the USGS Earthquake Catalog.If you have questions about the table, read the documentation from the USGS.

This report consists of a compilation of twelve digital geologic maps provided in ARC/INFO interchange (e00) format for the state of Oklahoma. The source maps consisted of nine USGS 1:250,000-scale quadrangle maps and three 1:125,000 scale county maps. This publication presents a digital composite of these data intact and without modification across quadrangle boundaries to resolve geologic unit discontinuities. An ESRI ArcView shapefile formatted version and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) plot file of the compiled digital map are also provided.

[Summary provided by the USGS.]

This digital map database has been prepared by R.W. Tabor from the published Geologic map of the Chelan 30-Minute Quadrangle, Washington. Together with the accompanying text files as PDF, it provides information on the geologic structure and stratigraphy of the area covered. The database delineates map units that are identified by general age and lithology following the stratigraphic nomenclature of the U.S. Geological Survey. The authors mapped most of the bedrock geology at 1:100,000 scale, but compiled Quaternary units at 1:24,000 scale. The Quaternary contacts and structural data have been much simplified for the 1:100,000-scale map and database. The spatial resolution (scale) of the database is 1:100,000 or smaller.

This database depicts the distribution of geologic materials and structures at a regional (1:100,000) scale. The report is intended to provide geologic information for the regional study of materials properties, earthquake shaking, landslide potential, mineral hazards, seismic velocity, and earthquake faults. In addition, the report contains information and interpretations about the regional geologic history and framework. However, the regional scale of this report does not provide sufficient detail for site development purposes.

[Summary provided by the USGS.]

The 2011 Bedrock Geologic Map of Vermont (1:100,000 scale) was created to integrate detailed (1:12,000- to 1:24,000-scale) modern mapping with the theory of plate tectonics to provide a framework for geologic, tectonic, economic, hydrogeologic, and environmental characterization of the bedrock of Vermont. It supersedes the 1961 bedrock geologic map which was produced at a scale of 1:250,000 (Doll and others, 1961).Please see the metadata and readme files at the publication website:https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3184/

Help students visualise plate boundaries on a spherical Earth, rather than on a flat map. The model shows major plate boundaries, boundary types and highlights our own Indo-Australian plate.Ready to cut out and construct (tennis ball required). Assembly instructions included.Suitable for primary Years 5-6 and secondary Years 7-12

This digital geologic and tectonic database of the Death Valley ground-water model area, as well as its accompanying geophysical maps, are compiled at 1:250,000 scale. The map compilation presents new polygon, line, and point vector data for the Death Valley region. The map area is enclosed within a 3 degree X 3 degree area along the border of southern Nevada and southeastern California. In addition to the Death Valley National Park and Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault systems, the map area includes the Nevada Test Site, the southwest Nevada volcanic field, the southern end of the Walker Lane (from southern Esmeralda County, Nevada, to the Las Vegas Valley shear zone and Stateline fault system in Clark County, Nevada), the eastern California shear zone (in the Cottonwood and Panamint Mountains), the eastern end of the Garlock fault zone (Avawatz Mountains), and the southern basin and range (central Nye and western Lincoln Counties, Nevada). This geologic map improves on previous geologic mapping in the area by providing new and updated Quaternary and bedrock geology, new interpretation of mapped faults and regional structures, new geophysical interpretations of faults beneath the basins, and improved GIS coverages. The basic geologic database has tectonic interpretations imbedded within it through attributing of structure lines and unit polygons which emphasize significant and through-going structures and units. An emphasis has been put on features which have important impacts on ground-water flow. Concurrent publications to this one include a new isostatic gravity map (Ponce and others, 2001), a new aeromagnetic map (Ponce and Blakely, 2001), and contour map of depth to basement based on inversion of gravity data (Blakely and Ponce, 2001).

This map compilation was completed in support of the Death Valley Ground-Water Basin regional flow model funded by the Department of Energy in conjunction with the U. S. Geological Survey and National Park Service. The proposed model is intended to address issues concerning the availability of water in Death Valley National Park and surrounding counties of Nevada and California and the migration of contaminants off of the Nevada Test Site and Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository. The geologic compilation and tectonic interpretations contained within this database will serve as the basic framework for the flow model. The database also represents a synthesis of many sources of data compiled over many years in this geologically and tectonically significant area.

This map presents a model of crustal strain rates derived from Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of horizontal station velocities. The model indicates the spatial distribution of deformation rates within the Pacific North America plate boundary from the San Andreas fault system in the west to the Basin and Range province in the east. As these strain rates are derived from data spanning the last two decades, the model reflects a best estimate of present day deformation. To download the map, please see the link provided.

The USGS presents an updated model of the Juan de Fuca slab beneath southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California, and use this model to separate earthquakes occurring above and below the slab surface. The model is based on depth contours previously published by Flück and others (1997). Our model attempts to rectify a number of shortcomings in the original model and to update it with new work. The most significant improvements include (1) a gridded slab surface in geo-referenced (ArcGIS) format, (2) continuation of the slab surface to its full northern and southern edges, (3) extension of the slab surface from 50-km depth down to 110-km beneath the Cascade arc volcanoes, and (4) revision of the slab shape based on new seismic-reflection and seismic-refraction studies. We have used this surface to sort earthquakes and present some general observations and interpretations of seismicity patterns revealed by our analysis. In addition, we provide files of earthquakes above and below the slab surface and a 3-D animation or fly-through showing a shaded-relief map with plate boundaries, the slab surface, and hypocenters for use as a visualization tool.

[Summary provided by the USGS.]