Plate tectonics game: plate boundaries, volcanoes and earthquakes
A geology game for understanding why there are volcanoes in the Andes but not in the Himalayas, or why Iceland is splitting in two. You see a cross-section of the Earth with the mantle below and two plates on top, oceanic or continental, and arrows showing which way each one moves. There are no answers to pick from: boundaries go into the box for their type (convergent, divergent or transform) or by whether crust is created or destroyed, you tap the plate that sinks, and you build the boundary behind a landform, a real place or some clues by choosing each plate’s type and how they move. When you answer, what really happens is drawn: the ridge, the rift valley, the trench and the volcanic mountain range, the island arc, the folded mountains or the fault that splits a road. On the hard level you start from a place or from some clues and build the boundary.
Geology · Secondary, Sixth form
The secondary syllabus boils down to six cases: two oceanic plates moving apart, a continent splitting, an oceanic plate sinking under a continental one or under another oceanic one, two continental plates colliding and two plates sliding past each other. Each has its landform and its real example, and the game repeats them until you recognise them at a glance.
Oceanic crust sinks because it is denser; as it sinks it melts, and that is why volcanoes appear. Two continental plates do not sink, so they crumple up and build the highest mountains, with almost no volcanoes. Every answer explains it, which is exactly what reasoning questions in science exams ask for.
The examples are the textbook ones: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Iceland, the East African Rift, the Andes, Japan and the Mariana Trench, the Himalayas and the San Andreas Fault, plus the Hawaii hotspot. The hard level works backwards: from the place or its clues to the boundary that explains them.
"Up comes «The Andes» and you have to build the boundary: an oceanic plate and a continental one colliding. Why? When they collide, the denser oceanic plate sinks under the continental one: subduction. A deep trench forms along the coast and, inland, the sinking plate melts and the magma rises to build a mountain range full of volcanoes. That is what happens in the Andes, where the Nazca Plate dives under South America."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
Put two flat biscuits on a layer of cream or custard on a plate: they are the plates on the mantle.
Pull them apart slowly and watch the cream rise through the gap: that is how a ridge is born.
Push them together after wetting the edge of one: the soft one bends and slides underneath, as in subduction.
Slide them past each other and notice how they catch and jerk: that is an earthquake on a transform fault.
If you like Moving Plates, these activities work similar skills:
Another geology game: the magma that erupts from volcanoes turns into igneous rock, and the cycle goes on through sedimentary and metamorphic rock.
The USGS website shows the earthquakes of the last week: check that almost all of them fall on plate boundaries.
A chemistry game on the periodic table: the elements that make up the crust and the mantle, such as oxygen, silicon and iron.
More practice on · Geology & the Universe
Tectonic Plates
This is Tuthor
Everything you need to study, from primary to sixth form
90 games and 226 explained quizzes across 14 subjects. Free, no sign-up.
Are you a teacher?
Share it with your class
🏆 New: play it live with your class, everyone on their phone →Tuthor uses essential cookies to work and, with your permission, analytics cookies to improve the experience.