THE DYNAMIC EARTH - PLATE TECTONICS | National Geographic wall map

WALL MAP

The new Dynamic Earth wall map illustrates plate tectonics and features new bathymetry and naturally colored relief, as well as current volcano and earthquake data. Notable earthquakes and eruptions lists are updated to include the significant earthquakes in Haiti (2010) and Japan (2011) and volcanic eruptions in Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland (2010) and Merapi, Java, Indonesia (2010). Like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle, tectonic plates fit together to form the earth’s outer shell. The interaction of these plates causes earthquakes and volcanoes and shapes the earth’s crust into mountains, valleys and deep-sea trenches. The Dynamic Earth map illustrates 17 major tectonic plates and highlights diffuse plate boundaries, convergent boundaries, spreading boundaries, fault zones, hot spots, notable earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of the 20th and 21st centuries, earthquakes with a magnitude of greater than 6.5 during the 20th and 21st centuries, and notable volcanic eruptions during the past 10,000 years.