Plate Tectonics

1. Plate Tectonics

2. Alfred Wenger Alfred Wenger, a meteorologist, originated the theory of Pangaea, which means all of the Earth in Greek. When he originated this theory scientists thought the continents were fixed in place and nobody payed much attention to his theory until the 1930’s, when Arthur Holmes suggested a mechanism that could explain Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift: the power of convection. Nobody believed Arthur Holmes either until about 30 years later.

3. Boundaries Boundaries are where the plates meet. There are three types of boundaries, convergent, divergent, and transform. These boundaries can cause many hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, trenches, landslides, or mudslides.

4. Convergent Boundaries Convergent boundaries are where plates meet and one is dragged down beneath the other causing trenches, earthquakes, mountains, volcanoes, landslides, and mudslides. An example is the Indian and Eurasian plates, which converged to form the Himalayas.

5. Divergent Boundaries Divergent boundaries are when two plates separate and magma seeps through the oceanic crust, causing volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, mudslides, and avalanches. An example is the African and Arabian plates diverging in the Red Sea.

6. Transform Boundaries Transform boundaries are when two plates slide against each other causing earthquakes landslides and mudslides. An example is the Pacific and North American plates forming the San Andreas fault line.

7. Real World Connections We live on the North American plate, which is bordered by the Eurasian, Philippine, Pacific, Juan De Fuca, Cocos, Caribbean, South American, and Arabian plates. I don’t predict any serious danger in the United States related to plate tectonics in the immediate future but in the very distant future I predict that the land will override tectonic plates and will eventually bring the land mass together once again reforming Pangaea.