: Causes And Cause Of Tectonic Plates

As a tectonic plate slides into the mantle, the heat releases fluids trapped in the plate. Seawater and carbon dioxide, rise into the upper plate and can partially melt the overlying crust, forming magma. And magma most likely means volcanoes are around.

The theory of plate tectonics states that the Earth’s lithosphere (top layer of the Earth’s crust) is split up into rigid sections called plates that are moving relative to one another as they move on top of the underlying semi-molten mantle. These plates are either continental, The North American Plate, or oceanic, The Nazca Plate.

The creation of the Ring of Fire is very interesting too, it is the result of plate tectonics. These are huge slabs of Earth’s crust that fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. These plates can collide, stay apart, or move up right next to each other. The convergent plate boundaries are formed by plates colliding into each other. The heavier plates slide under the lighter plates causing a deep trench in the ocean floor, as we talked about earlier. If you went down into the ocean you’d be able to see a bunch of trenches in the ocean floor running parallel to corresponding volcanic arcs like the Ring of Fire. This allows islands and continental mountain ranges to be created. A divergent boundary is formed by

Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that attempts to explain the movements of the Earth's lithosphere that have formed the landscape features we see across the globe today” (Briney). Geology defines “plate” as a large slab of solid rock, and “tectonics” is part of the Greek root word for “to build.” Together the words define how the Earth’s surface is built up of moving plates. The theory of plate tectonics dictates that individual plates, broken down into large and small sections of rock, form Earth’s lithosphere. These fragmented bodies of rock move along each other atop the Earth’s liquid lower mantle to create the plate boundaries that have shaped Earth’s landscape. Plate tectonics originated from meteorologist Alfred Wegener’s theory, developed in the early 20th century. In 1912, he realized that the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa appeared to piece together like a jigsaw puzzle. He further examined the globe and deduced that all of Earth’s continents could somehow be assembled together and proposed the idea that the continents had once been linked in a single supercontinent called Pangaea. To explain today’s position of the continents, Wegener theorized that they began to drift apart approximately 300 million years ago. This theory

The earth’s crust is made out of plate tectonics. Each plate has a defined boundary and direction it moves. The plates in Earth’s crust perform two actions; they submerge under each other or they spread out. The Pacific Plate is the largest plate and it borders around many plates. The Pacific Plate moves northwest. New crust is formed from magma outpours, which are a result of the zones spreading. The tectonic plates created the islands. When the tectonic plates move, it creates the change in geography. Active volcanoes together shape the way islands are build. The magma from the volcano and the deposits from the plate are needed to create

Plate tectonics is the theory that the Earth's crust is divided into a number of plates that move because they float on the asthenosphere. Plate tectonics are moved by convection loops driven by geothermal activity. High temperatures inside Earth causes magma to rise into the asthenosphere and eventually reach the base of the Earth's crust. The magma spreads horizontally and cool. The cooling magma moves parts of the crust, creating mountains (Arbogast 290). There are three types of mountains associate with plate tectonics and they are volcanic, fold and block mountains. These are formed as "compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces rock upward" (Williams). Volcanic mountains are formed when a tectonic plate

The Earth is always changing because of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics describes the behavior of earth's out shell, with pieces bumping and grinding each other about. Most of the world's active volcanoes are located along or near the boundaries between shifting plates and are called plate-boundary volcanoes. The Hawaiian Islands are one of the best examples of an intra-plate volcanic chain. They are developed by the northwest-moving Pacific Plate passing over an inferred hot spot that inmates the magma generating and volcano-formation process. The Ring of Fire in parts of the Pacific Ocean contain many active volcanoes which Mt. St. Helens is a part of. The zone along plate boundaries are the most geologically active regions on Earth.

The seven major tectonic plates comprise mostly on continental plates and the Pacific plate. The seven major plates from greatest to least are called: the Pacific Plate stretching 103,300,000 km2, North American Plate being 75,900,000 km2, Eurasian Plate being 67,800,000 km2, African Plate stretching 61,300,000 km2, Antarctic Plate being 60,900,000 km2, Australian Plate being 47,000,000 km2, and the South American Plate being 43,600,000 km2. With different tectonic plates, there are different ways they can move: divergent, convergent, and transform. Divergent plate movement is when both plates moving away from each other, creating a canyon that has magma pushing out from the bottom, forming new ground. Convergent is usually an oceanic plate and a continental plate are moving into one another, causing the oceanic plate to subducts into the mantle. This causes move active volcanos and earthquakes. Even though all of the plates are in the lithosphere, it's only the where Earth is flexible enough to move rather than flow. The lithosphere flexes when loads of weight are placed on it or

Natural or human-made structures that cross a transform boundary are offset—split into pieces and carried in opposite directions. Rocks that line the boundary are pulverized as the plates grind along, creating a linear fault valley or undersea canyon. As the plates alternately jam and jump against each other, earthquakes rattle through a wide boundary zone. The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the Earth. The lithosphere includes the brittle upper portion of the mantle and the crust, the outermost layers of Earth’s structure. The lithosphere is divided into 15 major tectonic plates: the North American, Caribbean, South American, Scotia, Antarctic, Eurasian, Arabian, African, Indian, Philippine, Australian, Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, and

Plate tectonics is a theory that the earths outer rigid layer, the lithosphere, is divided into plates that are constantly moving across the earths surface, much like ice does on the surface of a lake. When the plates pull away from each other, it creates what is known as a divergent boundary. When the plates crash into each other, it creates what is known as a convergent boundary. Finally, When the tectonic plates have hot spot, or holes that allow hot magma to rise through the crust to the surface of the earth it is called a hot spot.

Adjacent plates pull apart, such as at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which separates the North and South America Pates from the Eurasia and Africa Plates. This pulling apart causes "seafloor spreading" as new material from the underlying less rigid layer, or "asthenosphere," fills the cracks and adds to these oceanic plates.

In this mantle, there are convection currents. Heat from the core causes convection currents to slowly move the Earth 's crust around. All over the crust’s surface, crust is destroyed, and reformed. All plate boundaries movements are moved by convection currents in the mantle. At the boundaries between plates, magma is able to force its way to the surface and escape as lava. There are three different types of plate boundaries known as convergent, divergent, and transform.

The theory of plate tectonics also explains the formation of destructive plate boundaries which account for creating 80% of the world’s active volcanoes. The melting crust at Subduction Zones (oceanic-oceanic or continental-oceanic) are due to differences in density between oceanic and continental lithospheres, where the less dense plate is pushed beneath the more dense plate, and becomes part of the asthenosphere forming magma that is andesitic in its nature. This creates the most violent volcanic activity. Island Arc volcanoes such as Pinatubo and Fold Mountain Volcanoes such as Nevado Del Ruiz (Andes) are very destructive.

Plate tectonics is a theory where earth’s crust in the lithosphere is made up of plates that float on a hot layer of molten magma in the asthenosphere, and moves constantly and under different circumstances causes mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes to appear.

There are also divergent boundaries where plates seem to come apart. When the lithosphere of Earth is pulled apart, it tends to break and separate along the boundary. This is a slow process. The block between the faults cracks and drops down into the asthenosphere. The sinking of the block forms a rift and liquid rock fills the cracks. New crust is formed along the boundary. Earthquakes occur near the faults with volcanoes forming where the magma reaches the surface. When a divergent boundary crosses the land, the rift valleys created are usually between 30-50 km wide. One can see this in the East Africa rift in Kenya.