How it works
This plate tectonics quiz has 42 questions in three sets: the layers and the theory, the three kinds of plate boundary, and the real places and evidence behind them. Each answer comes with the reason.
Read the full guide
Three sets
Layers and the theory covers the lithosphere, asthenosphere, mantle convection, Wegener and Pangaea. Plate boundaries asks what happens where plates meet. Places and evidence runs from the San Andreas Fault to magnetic stripes on the seafloor.
For a class
Print, with a tick on With answer key, gives a paper quiz for an earth science unit. Missed questions come back on screen until they are right.
- Match each boundary to its motion: divergent apart, convergent together, transform sideways.
- Ridges and rift valleys mean divergent; trenches and big mountain ranges mean convergent.
Questions and answers
What are the three types of plate boundaries?
Divergent, where plates move apart and new crust forms; convergent, where they collide and one may sink beneath the other; and transform, where they slide past each other sideways, as at the San Andreas Fault.
What is the difference between continental drift and plate tectonics?
Continental drift, proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, said the continents move. Plate tectonics, accepted in the 1960s, explains how: the whole lithosphere is split into plates moving over the weak asthenosphere, with seafloor spreading at the ridges.
What grade is this quiz for?
It matches a middle school or high school earth science unit. Start with Plate boundaries: the other two sets build on its three types. The grade band is our judgement, not a published standard.