Editing Plate tectonics (section)

== Modern plates ==
{{Main|List of tectonic plates}}
[[File:Plate tectonics map.gif|frameless|upright=2|right|Plate tectonics map]]

Depending on how they are defined, there are usually seven or eight "major" plates: [[African plate|African]], [[Antarctic plate|Antarctic]], [[Eurasian plate|Eurasian]], [[North American plate|North American]], [[South American plate|South American]], [[Pacific plate|Pacific]], and [[Indo-Australian plate|Indo-Australian]]. The latter is sometimes subdivided into the [[Indian plate|Indian]] and [[Australian plate|Australian]] plates.

There are dozens of smaller plates, the eight largest of which are the [[Arabian plate|Arabian]], [[Caribbean plate|Caribbean]], [[Juan de Fuca plate|Juan de Fuca]], [[Cocos plate|Cocos]], [[Nazca plate|Nazca]], [[Philippine Sea plate|Philippine Sea]], [[Scotia plate|Scotia]] and [[Somali plate|Somali]].

During the 2020s, new proposals have come forward that divide the Earth's crust into many smaller plates, called terranes, which reflects the fact that Plate reconstructions show that the larger plates have been internally deformed and oceanic and continental plates have been fragmented over time. This has resulted in the definition of roughly 1200 terranes inside the oceanic plates, continental blocks and the mobile zones (mountainous belts) that separate them.<ref name="Hasterok-etal_2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Hasterok |first1=Derrick |last2=Halpin |first2=Jacqueline A. |last3=Collins |first3=Alan S. |last4=Hand |first4=Martin |last5=Kreemer |first5=Corné |last6=Gard |first6=Matthew G. |last7=Glorie |first7=Stijn |date=2022 |title=New Maps of Global Geological Provinces and Tectonic Plates |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |volume=231 |bibcode=2022ESRv..23104069H |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104069}}</ref><ref name="van Dijk_2023">{{Cite journal |last=Van Dijk |first=Janpieter |date=2023 |title=The new global tectonic map—Analyses and implications |journal=Terra Nova |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=343–369 |bibcode=2023TeNov..35..343V |doi=10.1111/TER.12662}}</ref>

The motion of the tectonic plates is determined by remote sensing satellite data sets, calibrated with ground station measurements.