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| Map shows major plates, boundaries, and plate movement (whybecasuescience.com) |
Have you ever wondered why Earth's continents look like they should fit together, almost like a puzzle? Thanks to Geologist Alfred Wegener's, we now know that each continent is embedded in one of the earth's tectonic plates, and that these plates are constantly moving. We call these broken up plates the lithosphere. According to Keller and DeVecchio, (Natural Hazards, 33-34), the lithospheric plates move over another layer called the asthenosphere.
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| In a Divergent boundary, two plates are moving away from each other, while hot mantle is rising up from the center forming a rift. (Keller and DeVecchio) |
However, because it does rest on some fault lines, Great Britain experiences a few minor earthquakes each year. The earthquakes are caused by stress in the crust below Britain, which is caused by the shifting of the Eurasian plate.

