Giant Ocean Floor Plate Is Slowly Tearing Apart Under America

Deep under the Pacific Ocean, a massive slab of rock called the Juan de Fuca plate is breaking into pieces as it sinks beneath North America—like a train slowly coming off its tracks! Scientists used special sound wave detectors to watch this happen for the very first time, and they discovered the plate splits gradually instead of cracking all at once. This discovery could help us understand earthquakes better and explain why we find old pieces of ocean floor buried deep underground!