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Explore the movement of Earth's tectonic plates and the forces that shape our planet's surface at plate boundaries. Learn about divergent boundaries, seafloor spreading, convergent boundaries, continental collisions, and the theory of plate movement due to mantle convection.
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Plate Tectonics the movement of Earth
Plate Tectonics • Tectonic plates: pieces of the Earth’s crust & upper mantle • Plate boundaries: places where plates meet
Plate Tectonics • Movement of plates creates forces that affect Earth’s surface at the plate boundaries and causes them to move. • Plates move in 3 ways: • 1. slide past each other • 2. move apart (divergent) • 3. collide (convergent)
Transform Fault Boundaries • Faults form when plates slide past each other • A fault is a large crack in rocks that can break • EARTHQUAKES can happen along fault lines
Plates move apart b/c of pulling forces (tension) that act in opposite directions. New crust forms in the gaps where plates pull apart. Form mid ocean ridges (in oceans), and rift valleys (on continents) Divergent Plates
Divergent Boundaries • Boundary between two plates that are moving apart or rifting • RIFTING causesSEAFLOOR SPREADING
Divergent Plate Movement: Seafloor Spreading • the movement of two oceanic plates away from each other (at a divergent plate boundary), which results in the formation of new oceanic crust (from magma that comes from within the Earth's mantle) along a mid-ocean ridge. • Ocean floor spreading was first suggested by Harry Hess and Robert Dietz in the 1960's.
Features of Divergent Boundaries • Mid-ocean ridges
Features of Divergent Boundaries • Rift valleys Quilotoa, Ecuador
Features of Divergent Boundaries • Fissure volcanoes Hawaii, USA
a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean the longest mountain range in the world. separates the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate and the African Plate from the South American Plate Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Divergent Plates Bridge between continents in Reykjanes peninsula, southwest Iceland across the Alfagja rift valley, the boundary of the Eurasian and North American continental tectonic plates.
When plates collide, different things can happen (depends on the density of the plates involved). There can be: continental-continental collisions, oceanic-oceanic collisions & continental-oceanic collisions Convergent Plates
Continental-Continental Collisions • Forms a mountain range
Oceanic-Continental Collisions • Forms a trench and volcanic arc
Oceanic-Oceanic Collisions • Forms an island arc
When one plate plate sinks underneath another plate. The denser plate sinks underneath & into the mantle. Subduction Zones
Fold • When rocks bend due to force.
Fold: When rocks bend • Anticline (Upward) • Syncline (Downward)
the circulation of heat A theory explaining why the plates move. Theory says plates move b/c the mantle material is being circulated b/c of the difference in densities in the mantle. Convection