How Fast Is Tectonic Plate?

Earth's continental plates drift at the same pace your fingernails grow — typically 2-10 cm per year. Yet over enormous spans of time, this glacial creep splits oceans, raises mountains, and rearranges continents into entirely new configurations.

Plate tectonics theory was only widely accepted in the 1960s. Until then, the idea of continents drifting was considered fringe science by mainstream geology.

• About the same pace as fingernails grow
• 1,000× slower than typical glaciers flow