Plate Boundaries Map

Last updated 11 October 2026

Three types of plate boundary

At a divergent boundary Divergent boundary. Plates pull away from each other and new crust forms between them. Source plates pull apart and new crust forms in the gap. At a convergent boundary Convergent boundary. Plates move toward each other and crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another. Source they move toward each other, and one plate sinks under the other or both crumple into mountains. At a transform boundary Transform boundary. Plates slide horizontally past each other. Crust is neither made nor destroyed. Source they grind past each other side by side. The table totals each type from the boundary lines on the map. Speeds are the relative velocity of one plate against its neighbor Relative plate velocity. How fast one plate moves compared with its neighbor across a boundary, in millimeters per year. Source , averaged over the length of the boundary.

Data source: PB2002 plate model, Bird (2003), converted by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0. Download: CSV .

Key facts

1. PB2002 maps 260,564 km of plate boundary between its 52 plates, in 5,819 short steps. Bird (2003)
2. Divergent boundaries are the longest type, at 94,840 km (36% of the total).
3. Convergent boundaries move fastest on average: 44.7 mm/yr across the boundary, weighted by length.
4. 141 pairs of plates touch somewhere. Each pair can share more than one type of boundary.
5. USGS describes four kinds of boundary: divergent, convergent, transform and broad plate boundary zones where the edges are not clear. USGS, Understanding plate motions
6. Earth has stayed about the same size, so crust must be destroyed at convergent boundaries about as fast as it is made at divergent ones. USGS, Understanding plate motions

The seven boundary classes

Bird's model is finer than the three textbook types. Each short step of boundary gets one of 7 classes, which tell an ocean ridge from a rift on land, or a subduction zone Subduction zone. Where one plate sinks under another and back into the mantle, usually marked by a deep ocean trench. Source from a collision between two continents. We group the classes into the three types as shown.

Data source: PB2002 plate model, Bird (2003), converted by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0.

Where boundaries are not sharp lines

Some boundaries are wide belts rather than single lines. USGS calls these plate boundary zones Plate boundary zone. A broad belt where the edges of plates are not clearly defined and the boundary is spread across many small blocks. Source . The Mediterranean-Alpine region between the Eurasian and African plates is one: several small fragments, called microplates Microplate. A small fragment of a plate, common in wide plate boundary zones such as the Mediterranean-Alpine region. Source , move between the two large plates. PB2002 handles such areas by adding many small plates, which is why it has 52 plates where older models had about a dozen. Read more on how many tectonic plates there are.

Explore each type

• Divergent boundaries: 94,840 km, top plate pairs and the longest segments.
• Convergent boundaries: 91,765 km, top plate pairs and the longest segments.
• Transform boundaries: 73,959 km, top plate pairs and the longest segments.
• Subduction zones map
• Mid-ocean ridge map
• Plate motion and speeds
• Tectonic plates map