which all encircle the large Pacific Plate. The plates are constantly sliding past, colliding into, or moving above or below each other. This movement results in deep ocean trenches, volcanic ...

Despite its isolation, the Mariana Trench is tainted by pollution, with microplastics found even in its remote depths, ...

The tiny Juan de Fuca plate is largely responsible for the volcanoes that dot the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The plates make up Earth's outer shell, called the lithosphere.

A new study looking at four plateaus in the western Pacific Ocean suggests that these expansive areas aren't rigid slabs but weak spots being yanked apart by distant forces at the plate's edge.