What are the tectonic plates? Learn the 3 basic types.
Science
Video lecture of the three basic types of tectonic plates
Let's talk about what are the tectonic plates. They're intends to be some confusion between the terminologies here. When we talk about plate tectonics, we tend to talk about lithospheric plates. The lizard is very plates are that relatively cold, rigid potentially brittle outer part of the earth, overlying the asthenosphere, which is warmer, therefore more plastic material, not capable of generating earthquakes. But what goes on in with this crust mantle core business.
Those are chemical layerings, the terminology is crust mantle core. Those are different chemical layers of the earth. So the lithosphere, it turns out that cold brittle plate that moves in unison has two parts to it. The upper part of the lithosphere is the crust. So if we have an oceanic lipid plate, which, let's say, is about a hundred to a 150 kilometers thick. It's very upper part about 6 to 8 kilometers of it is oceanic crust. The majority of an oceanic lithospheric plate is made out of the upper part of the mantle. And so it's the combination of crust plus underlying relatively cold portion of the mantle that makes up this lithospheric plate.
If you have a continental plate, the continental crust again is the upper part of the plate, continental crust is thicker on average about 40 kilometers thick, it's thicker than the oceanic crust. And so in a continental plate, you've got about 40 kilometers of continental crustal material overlying lithospheric mantle which is about all let's say 60 or 80 kilometers thick.