Just off the coast, the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera to ever-higher altitudes.
On the West Coast, the Pacific plate is sliding under the North American plate, pushing it up slightly, reducing the relative sea level rise somewhat.
As the Indian tectonic plate pushes northwards, it is inevitable that more big earthquakes will strike at one of the most densely populated parts of the world.
Rescuers were still digging for survivors in the rubble overnight on Saturday, in many cases using their bare hands.Earthquakes are common in or near the Himalayas, where the Indian tectonic plate pushes five centimetres north a year, coming up against the Eurasian plate.
This way, no matter which way you plug it in, one plate pushes back while the other one handles the data connection.
The plate, pushed and pulled between them, will slide across metal sheets polished mirror-smooth at speeds of up to 1.8 meters per second.
Already, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, is spreading and putting pressure on the North American plate, pushing it westward.
Tectonic forces from the collision of the Farallon Plate with the North American Plate pushed up the Rocky Mountains between 75 and 50 million years ago in a mountain-building episode known as the Laramide orogeny.
Inevitably, as the geo-civilizational plates push up against one another and produce tremors, might the cultural equivalent of subduction take place?
Hot jets of mineral-rich fluid rise from the plates, pushing up into the overlying rock.
