Plate reconstruction is the process of reconstructing the positions of tectonic plates relative to each other (relative motion) or to other reference frames, such as the Earth's magnetic field or groups of hotspots, in the geological past. This helps determine the shape and make-up of ancient supercontinents and provides a basis for paleogeographic reconstructions.

An important part of reconstructing past plate configurations is to define the edges of areas of the lithosphere that have acted independently at some time in the past.

Most present plate boundaries are easily identifiable from the pattern of recent seismicity. This is now backed up by the use of geodetic data, such as GPS/GNSS, to confirm the presence of significant relative movement between plates.

Identifying past (but now inactive) plate boundaries within current plates is generally based on evidence for an ocean that has now closed up. The line where the ocean used to be is normally marked by pieces of the crust from that ocean, included in the collision zone, known as ophiolites. The line across which two plates became joined to form a single larger plate, is known as a suture.

In many orogenic belts, the collision is not just between two plates, but involves the sequential accretion of smaller terranes. Terranes are smaller pieces of continental crust that have been caught up in an orogeny, such as continental fragments or island arcs.

Plate motions, both those observable now and in the past, are referred ideally to a reference frame that allows other plate motions to be calculated. For example, a central plate, such as the African plate, may have the motions of adjacent plates referred to it. By composition of reconstructions, additional plates can be reconstructed to the central plate. In turn, the reference plate may be reconstructed, together with the other plates, to another reference frame, such as the Earth's magnetic field, as determined from paleomagnetic measurements of rocks of known age. A global hotspot reference frame has been postulated (see, e.g., W. Jason Morgan) but there is now evidence that not all hotspots are necessarily fixed in their locations relative to one another or the Earth's spin axis. However, there are groups of such hotspots that appear to be fixed within the constraints of available data, within particular mesoplates.

The movement of a rigid body, such as a plate, on the surface of a sphere can be described as rotation about a fixed axis (relative to the chosen reference frame). This pole of rotation is known as an Euler pole. The movement of a plate is completely specified in terms of its Euler pole and the angular rate of rotation about the pole. Euler poles defined for current plate motions can be used to reconstruct plates in the recent past (few million years). At earlier stages of Earth's history, new Euler poles need to be defined.

In order to move plates backward in time it is necessary to provide information on either relative or absolute positions of the plates being reconstructed such that an Euler pole can be calculated. These are quantitative methods of reconstruction.