A group of geophysicists have managed to map the changes in the global tectonic plate movement over a period of time.

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large-scale motion of Earth's lithosphere by studying the horizontal movement of tectonic plates over the surface and usually this movement is not uniform.

Study lead author, Professor Sergei Pisarevskiy from the University of Western Australia, said, "Sometimes there are periods where there was very quick movement all together globally, and sometimes very slow movements. We try to analyse that and to populate the mean angular velocity of the average plate movements on the surface of the earth".

He explained that the study has come to a tentative conclusion that on an average tectonic plate movement does indeed change. Besides the uneven level of the same analysis in different countries, he along with the lead author Kent Condie, a Professor of Geochemistry at New Mexico Tech, addressed a number of other problems faced in this area.

One such problem was of the inconsistent rate at which plates appear to move, both individually as well as relative to each other. The tectonic plates in and around Africa have moved very slowly for the last few hundred million years whereas in case of India, the plates have moved very fast. So, on an average the movement of the plates is calculated with some maximums and minimums.

Another problem is of the way in which evidence tends to deteriorate over time as the older the rocks get the less information they reveal.

A research similar to this was done last year by Martin Van Kranendonk at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. During the study, the researchers measured elements concentrated by tectonic action in 3,200 rocks from around the world and concluded that the plate motion has been slowing for 1.2 billion years.