What is happening to the distance between Canada and Europe?
Which plates meet near the west coast of Canada? In whihc direction are they moving?
For your second question:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire
For your first question:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_Ridge
As always with articles from Wikipedia, be sure you check out all the external links at the bottom of each article.
To determine what is happening to the distance between Canada and Europe, we can look at the concept of plate tectonics. The Earth's lithosphere is divided into several large plates that are constantly moving. Canada and Europe are located on separate plates, so their relative distance is influenced by these plate movements.
The plate that includes most of Canada is called the North American Plate, while the plate that includes Europe is called the Eurasian Plate. The boundary where these two plates meet is known as a divergent boundary or a mid-ocean ridge called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
At the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are moving away from each other. As a result, the Atlantic Ocean is widening, and the distance between Canada and Europe is increasing over long geological time scales. The movement of these plates is very slow, around a few centimeters per year, so the change in distance is not noticeable within a human lifetime.
Moving on to the second question, near the west coast of Canada, the North American Plate meets the Pacific Plate. They converge at a convergent boundary, specifically called a subduction zone, where the Pacific Plate is being forced beneath the North American Plate.
The direction of movement at this subduction zone is complex. The Pacific Plate is moving towards the west-northwest, while the North American Plate is moving towards the west-southwest. As a result, the Pacific Plate is being pushed underneath the North American Plate, leading to various geological features like volcanoes, mountain ranges, and earthquakes in the region.
In summary, the distance between Canada and Europe is increasing due to the movement of the North American and Eurasian plates at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Near the west coast of Canada, the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate are converging with the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the North American Plate.