Summary:
- Alfred Wegener, who died on the Greenland ice sheet at the age of 50, didn't live to see his work develop into plate tectonic theory.
- Each plate is named for the continent or ocean basin it contains.
- There are a dozen major plates and several minor plates.
- A plate can carry continental crust, oceanic crust, or some of each.
- If a weight is added to a plate, like a glacier, the plate will sink into the mantle.
- If the weight is taken away, like when the glacier melts, the Plate will rise.