Transcript Plate Tectonics

-super hot and
solid
-lies 4,000 miles
below the
surface
-made up of iron
and nickel
-Liquid
-1,400 miles thick
-Band of melted iron and nickel
-Begins at about 1,800 miles below the
surface
-Temps reach up to 8,500 F
-Consist of silicon,
aluminum, iron,
magnesium, oxygen, and
other elements
-The mixture continually
rises, cools, sinks, warms
up, and rises again,
releasing 80% of the
heart generated from the
earth’s interior
-Rocky shell
-ranges from about 2 miles thick under oceans
-about 75 miles thick under mountains
-its broken into more than a dozen great slabs
called plates that rest- or actually float- on a
partially melted layer in the upper mantle
-plates carry the earths oceans and continents
Continental drift- The theory that the
continents were once joined and then slowly
drifted apart
-Plates move gradually about 4 inches a year
-They crash into each other, pull apart, or
grind and slide past each other
-This action constantly changes the planet,
pushing up mountains, creating volcanoes,
and producing earthquakes
MAGMA-molten rock
Plate Tectonics- all activities which create
many of the earth’s physical features
The process in which the
heavier sea plate dives
beneath the lighter
continental plate
-
-during this process pieces
of the earth’s crust come
together slowly as the sea
plate slides under the
continental plate
- A process by which new
land is created when sea
plates pull apart and
magma wells up between
the plates
-Plates may grind of slide past
each other, creating cracks in
the earth’s crust
-Faulting occurs when the folded
land cannot be bent any
further, the blocks crack and
breaks into huge blocks
Occur where different plates meet one
another and tension builds up along fault
lines as the plates stick, the strain
eventually becomes so intense that the
rocks snap and shift.
Rocky plates melt as they dive downward into
the hot mantle, if the molten rock is too thick,
its flow is blocked and pressure builds