Global Tectonic Activity of the Last One Million Years · Earth and Space Sciences Reference Tables (ESSRT)
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The Global Tectonic Activity of the Last One Million Years map from the Reference Tables for Earth and Space Sciences (ESSRT) shows Earth's tectonic plates and the kinds of boundaries between them. It primarily supports HS-ESS1-5.
What the tectonic activity map shows
The world map names the tectonic plates, from the Pacific, North American and Eurasian plates to smaller ones such as the Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Caribbean, Scotia and Philippine plates. The key distinguishes divergent boundaries with transform faults, which are labeled with the total spreading rate in centimeters per year (from 1.4 to 15.1 cm/year), convergent boundaries, where one plate is subducted beneath another, major active transform faults, and normal faults or rifts. Ridges and trenches are named, including the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the East Pacific Rise, and the Aleutian, Peru-Chile, Mariana and Tonga trenches, and lines of latitude and longitude allow features to be located. The source of the map is Paul D. Lowman, Jr. of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Regents Exam Questions
Released Regents questions that cannot be answered without this table, listed by exam. Each link opens the question with its answer key; the standard is the one the question assesses. The exams through August 2026 were given with the earlier edition of the ESSRT, which has the same table.