Question: What would hppen if all tech tonic plates moved at once

Steven Thomson answered on 14 Jun 2015:

When tectonic plates move rapidly, this can lead to earthquakes. Sometimes they’re very small and we don’t notice. Sometimes they can be quite severe – if big earthquakes happen at sea, they can trigger huge tidal waves called tsunamis, and on land they’re often accompanied by some form of volcanic activity. This is only if they move quickly, though – most of the time all of the tectonic plates actually are moving all at once, but very very slowly, sometimes less than a millimetre per year!

If all the tectonic plates could move quickly at once, there would be a lot of earthquakes! No need to worry though, because as far as we know, it’s impossible for them all to move at the same time quickly enough for that to happen – phew!