In the process, parts of the lithosphere are moved apart by the sideways movement of the currents underneath. The convection currents in the mantle also bring heat to the surface. When plates try to slide past each other, friction between them stops their movement at first. Tremendous strains then build up. Eventually, the friction is overcome and the plates suddenly snap past each other, moving by a few metres at a time.
Earthquakes are the result.
The Himalayas were formed in this way as the plate carrying India slowly pushed into the one carrying Asia. These plates are still moving together, at the rate of about 11 centimetres per year, causing the surface to buckle and the ridges of the Himalayas to continue rinsing. Gondwanaland About 600 million years ago, all the major land masses were assembled in a supercontinent called Pangaea. By about 100 million years ago a northern supercontinent, made up of what is now most of North America, Greenland and Eurasia, was completely separated from a large southern supercontinent called Gondwanaland. As well as much of present-day Australia, Gondwanaland was made up of what is now Antarctica, India, South America, Africa and Arabia, and a mass that later became New Zealand.