Question

What do you mean by tectonic plates and how they are formed?

Answer 1

Tectonic plates are massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rocks, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere.Its size can vary greatly, from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across; the Pacific and Antarctic plates are among the largest.

They are formed when the stable convection cells formed in the mantle and started driving plate movements and subduction, and  they began to shape the Earth's surface, the researchers believe. Since then, most new crust has made its way to the surface of the Earth at spreading centers and subduction zones.