Cause of Plate Movements

• Thermal convection


  1. Heat from the Earth's interior causes the magma to flow

  2. Hot magna rises

  3. Cooler magma sinks

  4. Initiates the crustal plates movement
• Ridge push


  The sliding plate force which drives the plate motion in plate tectonics
• Ridge push occurs at mid-ocean ridges as the result of the rigid lithosphere sliding down the hot raised asthenosphere below mid-ocean ridges
• Slab pull


  Part of the motion of a tectonic plate caused by its subduction
• Plate motion is partly driven by the weight of cold, dense plates sinking into the mantle at oceanic trenches
• Slab pull and slab suction account for almost all of the force driving plate tectonics