Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics
Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics are vitally connected. The movement of the Earth's crustal plates is the major cause of earthquakes, and volcanoes also. The Earth's major plates are shown on page 5 of the Earth Science Reference Tables.

If you were to plot all of the earthquakes that occur on Earth, you would find that they follow a pattern.

This pattern follows fairly closely the plate boundaries indicated on the reference table

You would see a similar pattern if you plotted the volcanoes of the world.

This page and the links at the left are designed to aid students in reviewing the following topics which will appear on the New York State Earth Science Regents Examination. In addition, students may test their knowledge of the material presented here by accessing multiple-choice questions from past Regents Exams.