Question: what would happen if the earths plates all got destroyed

Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 16 Jun 2015:

@max hmmm, well that would depend what you mean because the Earth’s plates are actually being destroyed all the time (and made). So at plate boundaries the plates are crashing into each other and either sinking (subduction) or creating mountains. New plates are being formed in the middle of the oceans along mid-ocean-ridges. Large plates do break up under the immense stresses they are under and fracture to form smaller plates. So I guess the answer to your question might be that we will end up with a succession of smaller and smaller plates. But there has to be a limit, because we are also always making new ones.