Where did the change begin?
Labs / Geography
Plate Boundary Explorer
Two plates of the Earth's crust are drifting on the mantle. Drag each plate's arrow to aim its motion, and the boundary between them responds — crashing into mountains and trenches, tearing open to make new sea floor, or grinding sideways until it snaps. Flip a plate between continental and oceanic crust to change what happens when they meet.
Labs / Geography / Plate Boundary Explorer
Plate Boundary Explorer
Two plates of the Earth's crust are drifting on the mantle. Drag each plate's arrow to aim its motion, and the boundary between them responds — crashing into mountains and trenches, tearing open to make new sea floor, or grinding sideways until it snaps. Flip a plate between continental and oceanic crust to change what happens when they meet.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Geography explains how places, people, and Earth systems affect one another. This model lets you change one factor and watch its effects spread across space.
Explore
Try the model
Boundary Convergentvrel 8.0 cm/yrFeature —Quakes 0
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Point both arrows at each other. Does it matter whether the crust is oceanic or continental — which plate dives beneath the other?
- Make two continental plates collide. Why do you get a tall mountain belt but no ocean trench or volcanoes?
- Pull the plates apart with the Spreading preset. What are those symmetric stripes recording as new crust is born at the ridge?
- Set the arrows to slide past each other. Why does the fault bend and store strain for a while before it suddenly slips and shakes?
- Which boundary type racks up earthquakes fastest, and how does the relative velocity change how often the ground shakes?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Connect the pattern to place: identify where the change begins, where its effects appear, and which process links those locations.
Check
Before you leave
What spatial pattern appeared?
Which process connects the cause and effect?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.