Is it really that complicated? Really? Weâve all seen that ambiguous relationship status âItâs Complicatedâ on Facebook, but what does it really mean? Typically, the implication is that âItâs Mysteriousâ or âItâs Sordidâ or âWouldnât you like to know.â I call shenanigans.
Most of the United States is on the North American Plate. The tectonic plate that most of the United States rests on is the North American Plate. This plate also contains Greenland, Canada, Mexico, and parts of Iceland and Russia. Small parts of California and the entire Hawaiian islands rest on other tectonic plates.
The earth's continents are constantly moving due to the motions of the tectonic plates. Closely examine the map below, which shows the 15 major tectonic plates. As you can see, some of the plates contain continents and others are mostly under the ocean. The type of crust that underlies the continents is called continental crust, while the type found under the oceans is called oceanic crust.