Final answer:
Tectonic plates, part of Earth's crust, move at speeds ranging from A) 2 cm/year to 15 cm/year, driven by convection in Earth's mantle. They interact by diverging, converging, transforming, or colliding, impacting Earth's geology. The Pacific plate's speed relative to the North American plate, as example, is about 5 cm/year.
Step-by-step explanation:
Tectonic plates are portions of the Earth's crust and upper mantle that move slowly over the fluid asthenosphere. These plates move at varying rates, typically between 2 cm per year to about 15 cm per year. The motion is driven by the slow convection of the mantle, where heat escapes from the interior of the Earth due to the upward flow of warmer material and the sinking of cooler material.
Plates interact with each other in four main ways. They may diverge (pull apart), converge (one plate gets forced under the other), transform (slide alongside each other), or collide (jam together). Each interaction has a significant impact on the geological features of the Earth.
The Pacific plate relative to the North American plate, for instance, moves at about 5 cm/y or 500 cm per century. An example of a fault zone is the San Andreas Fault, where in the Los Angeles region, the average interval between major earthquakes is roughly 150 years, with an average motion of 7 meters.
Learn more about Tectonic Plates Movement