This is expected to continue, causing the plates to relocate and collide.
The switch's position, they add, is determined by whether the plates are colliding (on) or moving in the same general direction (off).
Tectonic subsidence can occur in these settings as the plates collide against or under each other.
When plates collide, one is often driven below the other, plunging hundreds of miles into the hot earth in a process known as subduction.
On a much longer time-scale continental plates may collide.
When these plates collide, scrape or dive past one another, earthquakes occur.
When two plates containing continental crust collide, both are too light to subduct.
Crustal plates collided and shook (ever so slowly), creasing the face of the land.
Before these two plates collided, the San Gabriel River did not even exist.
The removal of crust by subduction (moving under) at the points where plates collide.
