Identify the major plates
Start with a continent or ocean you recognise, then inspect the entire plate outline. Remember that the named continent may occupy only part of the plate.
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Plate colours identify regions, not risk.
IDENTIFY THE PLATE
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Identify the highlighted region, then choose its name below.
Practise plate boundaries
For each plate, identify one place where it separates from, converges with or slides past a neighbour. These relationships make the outline easier to remember.
Review your answers
When an answer surprises you, compare the model labels rather than assuming a country occupies one plate. India-Australia and Africa-Somalia are useful examples of how map conventions differ.
Sources and map method
Plate outlines use Peter Bird's PB2002 model, distributed by Nordpil under the Open Data Commons Attribution licence. Coastlines and country outlines are Natural Earth public-domain data. Boundary detail is limited by the source model.
- Bird (2003): PB2002 plate boundary model
- USGS: Understanding plate motions
- Map dataset sources and licences
- PB2002 geometry and licence
- Natural Earth terms
Country lookup compares simplified land outlines with the plate model. Boundaries and historical coastlines are modelled features. This atlas explains geography; it does not predict earthquakes or provide site-specific hazard estimates.