Plate boundary

Further information: Plate tectonics

Three types of plate boundary.

Plate boundaries refers particularly to places where continental plates touch or have touched in the past.

The major types of plate boundaries are:

Spreading boundaries. Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Africa's Great Rift Valley are examples. Rift valleys, mountains (orogeny), volcanoes.
Collision boundaries. These collide, forming a subduction zone (West coast of the Americas) or a continental collision (India with Asia). Mountains (orogeny), valleys, volcanoes.
Transform or fault boundaries. Here plates grind past each other along transform faults. Earthquakes and volcanoes often occur along the fault.
Conservative boundaries: little or no relative motion.

All boundaries except the conservative ones are sites of major geological activity.

Plate Boundary Media

Map of Earth's 16 principal tectonic plates*Divergent:*
  Spreading center
*
  Extension zone
*Convergent:*
  Subduction zone
*
  Collision zone
*Transform:*
  Dextral transform
*
  Sinistral transform
Diagram of the internal layering of Earth showing the lithosphere above the asthenosphere (not to scale)
A constructive/divergent plate margin/boundary with continental plates creating a rift valley. No labels, only arrows now, so it's language neutral, but someone may want to add them, or I might if I can be bothered to get round to it. A 3D orthogonal projection (at 10 degrees), 'flat colours' style, which I like the look of (and is easier for me to do).
A destructive/convergent plate margin/boundary with a continental plate subducting under another continental plate creating fold mountains. No labels, only arrows now, so it's language neutral, but someone may want to add them, or I might if I can be bothered to get round to it. A 3D orthogonal projection (at 10 degrees), 'flat colours' style, which I like the look of (and is easier for me to do).
A conservative/transform plate margin/boundary with a continental plate passing another continental plate with the potential to cause build up of pressure and earthquakes on a slip-strike margin. A 3D orthogonal projection (at 10 degrees), 'flat colours' style, which I like the look of (and is easier for me to do).
Detailed map showing the tectonic plates with their movement vectors.
Alfred Wegener in Greenland in the winter of 1912–13.
Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998. Most earthquakes occur in narrow belts that correspond to the locations of lithospheric plate boundaries.
Map of earthquakes in 2016
Animation of a full-plate tectonic model extended one billion years into the past