A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot

magma, volcanic ash and gases to escape from the magma chamber below the
surface.

Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-
oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of volcanoes caused
by divergent tectonic plates pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of
volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming together.

Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other by
appearing to drift across the ocean bed. The speculation that continents might have
'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was
independently (and more fully) developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. The theory of
continental drift was superseded by the theory of plate tectonics, which builds upon and
better explains why the continents move.