Transcript: The Earth is a geologically active place driven by energy release from radioactive decay deep in the interior of the Earth. If you look at a map of the location of earthquakes and volcanoes, they trace out the geological plates exactly. For example, volcanoes and earthquakes can be traced down the western coast of North and South America, across to the Asian continent, down the coast of Japan to Southeast Asia, and then across to New Zealand. This is the Pacific Plate. At the junctures of these plates geological activity occurs. Examples of two plates that are moving apart are Iceland, the formation of new volcanic islands. Examples of two plates moving alongside each other in a sheer pattern is California, the San Andres Fault. Two plates in collision, the Himalayan Mountains. Sometimes one plate will go under another, subduction; this is the cause of the raising of the Andes chain of mountains in South America. All of these examples indicate that the Earth is a restless place, and many of the most dramatic geological features on the Earth are relatively young, only a few hundred million years old.