The document discusses plate tectonics and describes how the Earth's lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates that move over time. It explains that there are two main types of plates - oceanic plates composed mostly of basalt beneath the oceans, and continental plates composed mostly of granite located on land. There are about 16 major tectonic plates that are in constant slow motion, generating geological events like mountain building and volcanism at their boundaries. Alfred Wegener originally proposed the theory of continental drift that recognized plates moved over time.