"Tectonic plate activity"
The tectonic plates move relative to each other relatively slowly, at a rate never perceptible without instruments, but with quite different rates. The highest speed occurs in the East Pacific ridge, near Easter Island, about 3400 km from mainland Chile, with a separation speed between plates of more than 15 cm / year and the slowest is in the dorsal Arctic, with less than 2.5 cm / year. . Since they move on the finite surface of the Earth, the plates interact with each other along their borders or boundaries causing intense deformations in the Earth's crust and lithosphere, which has led to the formation of large mountain ranges (for example the mountain ranges of Himalayas, Alps, Pyrenees, Atlas, Urals, Apennines, Appalachians, Andes, among many others) and large fault systems associated with them (for example, the San Andreas fault system). The contact by friction between the edges of the plates is responsible for most of the earthquakes. Other associated phenomena are the creation of volcanoes (especially notorious in the fire belt of the Pacific Ocean) and oceanic pits.