Plate Tectonics

Big Ideas:

  • Dynamic processes move matter within the Earth and on its surface and can cause volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, erosion, and landslides.

  • Geologic processes have shifted wildlife habitats, wiped out large numbers of species, and created opportunities for the evolution of new species.

Plate tectonics is

Concept/Question

Details/Images

What is plate tectonics?

Pangaea - separation- theory that explains how lithosphere (continental and oceanic crust) is separated into plates, that “float” on the asthenosphere (molten)

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/learning/1_plate_tectonics/plate_tectonics.html#slide


***energy coming from Earth’s hot interior-through convection currents-

Types of crust/composition

Continental and oceanic; made mostly of silicates (silicon and oxygen)


What is continental drift?

Theory that heat coming from inside the Earth in convection currents causes plate movement along boundaries; average movement 0.6 -10 cm/year

What are the 7 major tectonic plates?

N. American, S. American, African,Antarctic, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, Pacific

Examples of plate movement-colliding

(convergent) →←


Subduction (one plate is pulled under another)

⇘←

Mountain ranges and trenches


Himalayas


A type of convergent movement

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/learning/4_subduction_zones/subduction_zones.html#slide

Examples of plate movement- separating

(divergent)← →

Oceanic plates pull apart-form  new  crust;

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Examples of plate movement -sliding

(transform)⇄ ⇵

Pacific/N. American plates : San Andreas Fault

No new crust formed

Trench formation


Cool Mariana Trench video

“Hadal Zone”

convergence(subduction)

Mariana - how deep is it????? 

~37,000 feet   deepest-Pacific-

“Challenger Deep”

Volcanic arc

A chain of volcanoes formed along a subducting plate  

Japan; Lesser Antilles (Caribbean)

“Ring of Fire” - S. Pacific














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