Are England and France moving apart due to shifting tectonic plates? If so, what will happen to the channel? The answer comes this way. The earth is made up of about 12 plates that range in thickness from around 200 kilometers for oceanic plates to 150 kilometers for continental ones. The plates are rigid and rest on a more fluid layer underneath. They slide over this fluid layer, jostling with one another, forming mountain ranges over time when they collide, and earthquakes when they slide against one another. Most plates move at a rate of about two centimeters a year. France and England are part of the Eurasian plate, so there is only one seamless plate underneath the English Channel. The nearest plate boundaries are several hundred kilometers away. So the channel Tunnel, dubbed the chunnel, a 50-kilometer train tunnel beneath the English Channel, is quite safe.
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