Sea straits, as separating Westeros and Essos, suggest spreading zones and Mid-Ocean Ridges, where new oceanic crust forms, pushing the continents apart. Obsidian flows are often associated with volcanoes near subduction zones, as they will produce silica-rich lava, like seen at the Newberry Crater, Oregon. Obsidian shatters like glass and was used by ancient people for making arrowheads. It may, in fact, be volcanic silica glass, produced when magma from volcanoes is cooled and solidified very quickly before there is time for large crystals to grow. Dragonglass is a rare mineral needed to destroy the invading hordes of White Walkers. The existence of plate tectonics on the Game of Thrones world is also supported by the existence of Dragonglass. On Earth, the Cascade Range with the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains display a similar tectonic setting. In GoT, large plains like the Dothraki steppe and the volcanic peaks north of the Wall suggest the presence of a nearby subduction zone, where old crust sinks into the mantle, melts and forms blobs of magma, rising upwards, feeding a chain of volcanoes. This plate tectonics called process shapes continents and oceans, forms mountain ranges, feeds volcanoes and triggers earthquakes. As plumes of hot material in Earth's mantle rise upwards, slowly cool and sink back, they drag the plates around. Earth's crust is not a rigid outer shell but subdivided in plates.
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