A continent that stretches until it tears4 panels. Stretch: a continent's crust is pulled until tension cracks appear. Magma: it rises and squeezes into the widening cracks, and sometimes erupts as volcanoes. Rift: the cracks become a rift zone. Sea: if the spreading goes on, an ocean floods in, as the Red Sea did between Africa and Arabia.
The Atlantic's baby pictures: from an inlet to an ocean3 panels. Then: more than 100 million years ago the Atlantic is a tiny inlet between the continents. Spreading: new sea floor forms at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, about 2.5 centimeters a year. Now: a vast ocean, and the ridge is still spreading.
Pangaea breaks up, in four frames4 panels. One land: about 200 million years ago the continents are joined in a supercontinent, Pangaea. Break: it begins to split apart. Drift: the pieces move slowly away from one another. Today: the continents stand where a modern map shows them.
A continent that stretches until it tears4 panels. Stretch: a continent's crust is pulled until tension cracks appear. Magma: it rises and squeezes into the widening cracks, and sometimes erupts as volcanoes. Rift: the cracks become a rift zone. Sea: if the spreading goes on, an ocean floods in, as the Red Sea did between Africa and Arabia.
The Atlantic's baby pictures: from an inlet to an ocean3 panels. Then: more than 100 million years ago the Atlantic is a tiny inlet between the continents. Spreading: new sea floor forms at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, about 2.5 centimeters a year. Now: a vast ocean, and the ridge is still spreading.
East Africa gets ready to become an island3 panels. Now: a long rift zone runs through East Africa, with active volcanoes along it. Spreading: the land on each side moves slowly apart. Maybe: if it continues, the Indian Ocean floods in and the Horn of Africa becomes a large island.
Iceland, an island standing on a splitting ridge3 panels. Ridge: Iceland sits on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Split: the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate pull apart beneath it. Cracks: cracks in the ground widen, new ones appear, and volcanoes erupt along the gap.
The slowest goodbye: 2.5 centimeters a year3 panels. Wave: one plate waves goodbye to the other across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. A year later: they are about 2.5 centimeters farther apart. A million years later: about 25 kilometers apart, and still waving.
Stripes on the sea floor, the same on both sides3 panels. New rock: rock cooling at the ridge crest takes on the direction of Earth's magnetic field. Flip: the field reverses, and the next band of rock is magnetized the opposite way. Stripes: the bands match on both sides of the ridge, like a zebra folded down the middle.
Two conveyor belts, back to back on the sea floor3 panels. Belts: two giant conveyor belts face each other and roll in opposite directions. Loading: in the middle, magma rises and cools into new ocean crust on both belts. Ridge: the newest rock is always at the ridge crest, and it is older the farther out it has ridden.
Two plates say goodbye and a ridge grows between them3 panels. Pull apart: two ocean plates move slowly away from each other. Magma: it pushes up from the mantle into the gap and hardens into new crust. Ridge: the join stands up as a mid-ocean ridge, a mountain range under the sea.
Plates collide 9
A plate that gets stuck on the way down3 panels. Sinking: an ocean plate slides down into a trench. Stuck: part of it locks in place for a long time while the rest keeps pushing. Earthquake: it moves suddenly, the ground above shakes, and the land may be lifted.
A recycling plant: old sea floor goes down, new comes up3 panels. Made: new crust forms at a spreading ridge. Carried: it rides away from the ridge for millions of years. Recycled: at a trench it sinks back into the mantle, which is why Earth stays the same size.
A row of volcanoes grows above a sinking plate3 panels. Subduction: an ocean plate sinks beneath a continent. Magma: magma forms deep down, and scientists still debate exactly which rock melts. Volcanoes: a line of them stands above the sinking plate, as in the Andes and the Cascade Range.
An ocean plate dives under a continent and a trench opens4 panels. Collision: an ocean plate pushes into a continental plate. Subduction: the ocean plate sinks beneath the other. Trench: a long, narrow trench marks where it goes down. Mountains: the plate on top is lifted, as the Andes were, with volcanoes and strong earthquakes.
The deepest trench brags to the tallest mountain3 panels. Mountain: Mount Everest boasts about how high it stands above the sea. Trench: the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, answers that it goes nearly 11,000 meters down, deeper than Everest is high. Lesson: both were made where plates converge, one pushed up and one pulled under.
India's long trip north ends in the Himalayas3 panels. Crash: about 50 million years ago India collides with Asia. Crumple: the edges of the two plates crumple up along the collision zone. Peaks: the slow push goes on for millions of years and raises the Himalayas, the highest mountains on land.
The Ring of Fire, a necklace around the Pacific3 panels. Rim: around the edge of the Pacific Ocean, plates sink into deep trenches. Beads: volcanoes rise beside the trenches, and earthquakes shake the same belt. Name: the whole loop is called the Ring of Fire.
Two continents collide and neither one will sink3 panels. Head-on: two continental plates meet. Stalemate: continental rock is too light to be pushed down, so neither plate sinks. Mountains: the crust buckles and is pushed up into a mountain range.
Two ocean plates meet: a trench and a curved row of islands4 panels. Meeting: two ocean plates converge. Subduction: one sinks under the other and a trench forms. Volcanoes: lava piles up on the sea floor until volcanoes rise above the waves. Island arc: they stand in a curved chain beside the trench.
Plates slide past 6
A band of rock cut in two and carried apart3 panels. Before: one band of distinctive rock runs straight across a plate boundary. Slip: the two plates slide past each other for a very long time. After: the two halves of the band no longer meet, and the gap between them tells geologists how far the plates have moved.
A fault that links two spreading ridges3 panels. Ridge one: plates spread apart at a ridge in the south. Ridge two: they spread apart at another, far to the north. Link: between the two, the plates slide past each other, and that link is the transform fault.
A mid-ocean ridge drawn as a zigzag3 panels. Ridge: a spreading ridge runs along the sea floor. Offsets: transform faults cut across it and shift each piece sideways. Zigzag: on a map the ridge looks like a staircase, and most transform faults are down here, under the ocean.
The San Andreas fault: the Pacific Plate heads northwest3 panels. Fault: in California the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate meet along the San Andreas fault zone. Motion: the Pacific side grinds northwest past the other at about 5 centimeters a year. Result: land on the two sides of the fault ends up farther and farther apart.
Two neighbors whose houses drift down the street3 panels. Today: two houses face each other across a fault, one on each plate. Much later: at a few centimeters a year, each has moved along the street in an opposite direction. Punchline: the neighbors now wave to each other from different blocks.
Two plates grind past each other, one each way3 panels. Side by side: two plates slide past each other in opposite directions. Nothing made: no crust is created here and none is destroyed. Fault: the line between them is a transform fault, and it is marked by shallow earthquakes.
Earthquakes 10
A long wiggle and a short wiggle compare notes3 panels. Short: a short line that hardly wiggles says it recorded a small earthquake. Long: a long line that wiggles a lot says it recorded a large one. Magnitude: each earthquake gets one number for its size.
A map of earthquakes that draws the edges of the plates3 panels. Dots: every earthquake is one dot on a world map. Lines: the dots crowd into narrow belts. Plates: the belts trace the plate boundaries, because that is where most earthquakes happen.
A seismograph: the weight that stays still3 panels. Base: the base of the seismograph is set firmly in the ground. Shake: the ground moves and the base moves with it, but a heavy hanging weight does not. Record: the difference between the two is drawn as a wiggly line, the seismogram.
Foreshock, Mainshock and Aftershock, three siblings3 panels. Foreshock: the small one arrives first, and nobody can tell it is a foreshock until later. Mainshock: the largest one. Aftershock: smaller ones that follow in the same place, and may keep turning up for weeks, months or even years.
Hypocenter and Epicenter: one below, one above3 panels. Fault: the surface where two blocks of the earth slip past each other. Hypocenter: the point underground where the earthquake starts. Epicenter: the point on the surface directly above it.
Nobody can say when: a fault keeps its own calendar3 panels. Question: a reporter asks a scientist for the date of the next earthquake. Answer: on any fault there will be another one someday, but there is no way to tell when. Calendar: the fault's calendar has every page blank.
P Wave and S Wave race to the seismograph3 panels. Start: both waves leave the earthquake together. P wave: the faster one arrives first, like lightning. S wave: the slower one follows, like thunder, and the gap between them tells scientists how far away the earthquake was.
Ripples on a pond: how the shaking spreads3 panels. Slip: a fault slips deep underground. Waves: energy travels outward in every direction as seismic waves, like ripples on a pond. Surface: when the waves arrive, they shake the ground and everything on it.
Three seismographs draw three circles to find one point3 panels. Station one: its seismogram gives a distance, so the earthquake lies somewhere on a circle around it. Station two: a second circle crosses the first. Station three: a third circle meets the others at one point, the epicenter.
Two rough blocks that stick, strain and slip4 panels. Stuck: the rough edges of two plates catch on each other. Strain: the rest of each plate keeps moving, and energy is stored up. Slip: the force finally overcomes the friction and the edges come unstuck. Earthquake: the stored energy is released all at once.
The whole puzzle 8
A hot spot stays put while the plate moves over it4 panels. Hot spot: deep under the Pacific Plate a hot region stays in one place. Island: magma rises through the plate and builds a volcano that becomes an island. Move: the plate carries the island away, and its volcano goes quiet. Chain: a new island grows over the hot spot, which is how the Hawaiian Islands formed in a row.
Earth as a boiled egg with a cracked shell3 panels. Shell: the crust is thin and brittle, like the shell of a boiled egg. White: under it lies the mantle, a hot, dense layer of semi-solid rock. Cracks: the shell is broken into plates, and unlike an egg's, these pieces move.
Pangaea breaks up, in four frames4 panels. One land: about 200 million years ago the continents are joined in a supercontinent, Pangaea. Break: it begins to split apart. Drift: the pieces move slowly away from one another. Today: the continents stand where a modern map shows them.
Puzzle pieces that never stop sliding3 panels. Puzzle: Earth's outer skin is made of a dozen or more plates that fit together like puzzle pieces. Moving: the pieces slide past, bump into and pull away from one another. Edges: where two pieces meet is a plate boundary.
South America and Africa notice that they fit3 panels. Map: on a world map, the facing coasts of South America and Africa look like two halves of one torn page. Clue: matching fossils are found on both coasts. Answer: the two were once joined, and the Atlantic opened between them.
Stiff plates riding on slowly flowing rock3 panels. Lithosphere: the crust and the top of the mantle form a rigid layer, broken into plates. Asthenosphere: below it lies hot, semi-solid rock that can slowly flow. Ride: the plates move about on top of it.
Three kinds of boundary introduce themselves3 panels. Divergent: we pull apart, and new crust forms between us. Convergent: we push together, and one of us sinks or both of us crumple. Transform: we slide past, and nothing is made or destroyed.
Tropical plants in Antarctica: a fossil mystery3 panels. Find: fossils of tropical plants turn up in frozen Antarctica. Puzzle: nothing like them could grow there now. Answer: the land once lay closer to the equator, and it has moved.
How it works
These plate tectonics comic ideas are sorted by boundary: two plates that pull apart, two that collide, two that slide past. For earthquake comic ideas, choose Earthquakes.
Read the full guide
Three boundaries and what each leaves
Where plates pull apart, magma rises and makes new crust: a mid-ocean ridge, or a rift on land. Where they collide, an ocean plate sinks at a trench beside a line of volcanoes, or two continents crumple into mountains. Where they slide past, no crust is made or destroyed, and the fault is marked by earthquakes.
For an earthquake strip
The plot is stick, strain and slip: rough edges catch, the plates keep moving, and the stored energy is released as waves. Draw the waves as rings spreading from the point where the slip began.
Draw an arrow on every plate. The arrows tell a reader which kind of boundary it is.
Plates move only centimeters a year, so let the captions jump: a year later, a million years later.
Questions and answers
How do you make a comic about plate tectonics?
Give two plates faces and one thing to do: pull apart, collide or slide past. Use three or four panels, label each with its step, and end on what is left behind, such as a ridge, a trench or a mountain range.
What are some earthquake comic ideas?
Foreshock, Mainshock and Aftershock as three siblings. P Wave and S Wave racing to a seismograph, where the faster one arrives first. Three stations that each draw a circle on a map and find the epicenter where the circles meet.
What is a funny plate tectonics comic idea?
Choose Funny: a plate that waves goodbye at 2.5 centimeters a year, South America and Africa noticing that their coasts fit, or the deepest trench bragging to the tallest mountain.
How fast do tectonic plates move?
From less than 2.5 to more than 15 centimeters a year, by the US Geological Survey's figures: about 2.5 at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and about 5 along the San Andreas fault.