Plate tectonics and other cool stuff The Forces of the Earth Plate tectonics and other cool stuff

Plates – huge moving slabs that form the Earth’s crust Vocabulary Plates – huge moving slabs that form the Earth’s crust Plate tectonics – the theory that the Earth’s crust is made of plates that are constantly drifting apart and sliding together

Tectonic Plates

Vocabulary Crust – the band of solid rock on the Earth’s surface that floats on the mantle Mantle – a partly melted, white-hot inner layer of rock between the Earth’s curst and core

How Plates Move

Pangaea – the supercontinent that existed 225 million years ago

where plates pull apart Plate Boundaries Divergent Boundaries where plates pull apart

Convergent Boundaries How Plates Move Convergent Boundaries Where plates meet

Oceanic-Oceanic Convergence How Plates Move Oceanic-Oceanic Convergence

Oceanic-Oceanic Convergnce Mid-Ocean Ridges

Birth of an Island Surtsey 1963

Continental-Continental Convergence How Plates Move Continental-Continental Convergence

Mountain Ranges

Rise of the Himalayas

Vocabulary Magma – liquid rock within the Earth’s mantle Lava – liquid rock that has reached the Earth’s surface Subduction – the process by which the Earth’s crust slides into the mantle and melts into magma Volcanism – the outpouring of molten rock onto the Earth’s surface through cracks in the crust

Subduction Zones Trench Flipping Standard Subduction

Faulting – where two tectonic plates slide past one another How Plates Move Transform-Fault Boundaries Faulting – where two tectonic plates slide past one another

Fault Lines

San Andreas Fault

Ring of Fire

Hot Spots Hot spots – molten rock that forces its way through the crust, but is not located along a plate boundary

Vocabulary Weathering – the slow breakdown of rock into finer particles by natural means Erosion – the breakdown and movement of rock particles by running water, ocean currents, wind or ice

Weathering and Erosion

Glacial Erosion Glacier – a river or sheet of ice that scrapes the soil off the land as it moves

Greenhouse Effect Greenhouse effect – the trapping of heat within the atmosphere and oceans by carbon dioxide

World Climates