plate tectonics
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Plate TectonicsLiz LaRosa for use with my 5th Grade Science Class
http://www.middleschoolscience.com 2009
Earth’s Layers1.Scientists determined the inner layers using seismic waves.2.Earth’s crust is broken up into huge tectonic plates (lithosphere) that drift atop the soft, putty-like underlying middle mantle (asthenosphere).The lithosphere is made up of crust and upper mantle.
The Mantle
• Thickest layer
• Contains most of the Earth’s mass
• Is denser than the crust
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/unanswered.html
Plate movement is caused by convection currents in the asthenosphere.
The Core• Both inner and outer
core are made of hot metals.
• The inner core is solid.
• The outer core is liquid.
Tectonic Plates
Plates can move in three directions.
• Together- Convergent boundary
• Apart- Divergent boundary
• Past each other-Transform boundary
Different Types of Boundaries
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html
Continental-Continental collisionex: Indian and Eurasian Plates result in non-
volcanic continental mountains-the Himalayan Mountains
Indian Plate
Eurasian Plate
Sea Floor Spreading- Divergent boundaries
Sea Floor Spreading
• Mid Ocean Ridges – underwater mountain chains that run through the Earth’s Basins
• Magma rises to the surface and solidifies and new crust forms
• Older Crust is pushedfarther away from the ridge
Divergent Boundary – Arabian and African Plates
Arabian Plate
African PlateRed Sea
Divergent Boundary – Iceland
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html
Convergent Boundary – Oceanic & ContinentalThis is called a Subduction Zone because the ocean plate is sinking under the continental.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html & http://www.geology.com
Denser basalt
Less dense granite
At subduction zones of continental and oceanic crust there are many
volcanoes( a volcanic arc) and trenches due to the more dense
ocean plate sinking.
www.geology.com
Transform Boundary – San Andreas FaultAt this boundary, crust is neither created or
destroyed.Many earthquakes occur at all plate boundaries.
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