This is the Virunga Mountains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where lava is gushing out of the cracks. The Virunga volcanic chain belongs to the Great Rift Valley system in East Africa. It is also the junction of two major plates: the Nubian Plate to the west and the Somali Plate to the east. The Great Rift Valley is a typical plate dividing line.
Photo by CHRIS JOHNS
After the eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy, melted magma passed through hardened lava and looked like a river. Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in Europe, originating from the northward shift of the African Plate partially subducting below the Eurasian Plate.
Photograph by CARSTEN PETER
In Iceland's Siewell National Park, hikers walk under the shadows of cliffs. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge rises above sea level in Sieville, bordered by the North American Plate to the west and the Eurasian Plate to the east.
Photo by CRISPIN RODWELL/ALAMY
In California's San Andreas Fault, the Faulty Water System on the Caliso Plain resembles an oil painting. This fault is more than 1100 km long and is the dividing line between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. The faults that cross the Caliso Plain are very clear, as the land is arid and the faults are not significantly eroded.
Photograph by W.A. Rogers
The Lapley Ridge, which belongs to Monument Upwarp in southeastern Utah, is a narrow anticline formed about 70 million to 50 million years ago.
Photographed by Michael Collier
In the Atlantic Ocean, a woolly wren swims around the polychaets of the mid-Atlantic ridge. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the typical plate dividing line, where new underwater worlds are being born.
Photograph by EMORY KRISTOFF
On the Mid-Atlantic Ridge off the west coast of Mexico, a stream of hydrothermal fluids erupts from the black mineral chimney body. At plate boundaries, black chimney bodies consisting of lead, iron, manganese, and zinc sulfide are common, and superheated seawater is ejected through the chimney bodies. Where the sun does not shine, they give birth to strange life forms.
Photography: AL GIDDINGS
In Chile's Torres Paine National Park, the rising sun shines warmly over the icy southern tip of the Andes. The Andes Mountains, which span the entire western coast of South America, originate from the Nazca Plate and subduct below the South American Plate.
Photograph by PETER ESSICK
Sulfur, salt and other minerals bring bright colors to the crater of Mount Dalore. Located in Ethiopia's Danakil Depression, the volcano is located 48 meters below sea level and is the lowest terrestrial volcano on Earth.
In the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, on the red waters of Lake Natlon in Tanzania, the shadow of the plane can be seen. Since algae feed on salt from nearby volcanoes, the lake waters turn red. The Great Rift Valley system began in northern Syria, spanned East Africa, and extended all the way to Mozambique.
Photo by GEORGE STEINMETZ, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
In the Persian Gulf, two tectonic plates collide: the Arabian Plate (bottom left) rushes above the Eurasian Plate (top right). The Persian Gulf (top) and the Gulf of Oman (bottom) were once a rift, and the two plates pulled apart from each other, and the gap between them widened, and the Indian Ocean filled in. However, this process was later reversed, and about 20 million years ago, the bay began to close. The collision of the two continental plates has created a mountainous terrain in Iran.
摄影：JACQUES DESCLOITRES, MODIS LAND RAPID RESPONSE TEAM, NAS