GEPlateTectonicsAnswers

Each plate is moving a certain direction due to the convection from the Asthenosphere. The meeting of two plates is called a boundary, there are three types of boundaries in the world: Convergent Boundaries, Divergent Boundaries. And Transform Boundaries. In the case of Convergent Boundaries, two plates are pushing against each other, which can create Deep Ocean Trenches, Huge Mountains, and/or Volcanic Mountain chains. An example of this happening is the Mariana Trench, During Convergence, the denser crust, oceanic crust, is subducted below the less dense crust. If the crusts have the same density then the plates are pushed upwards. At Divergent Boundaries, the plates are moving away from each other, this can create Mid-Ocean Ridges and Rift Valleys. An example of this happening is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At the final boundary, Transform Boundaries, the plates slide the past one another in the opposite direction, causing shallow earthquakes and offset features. An example of this Boundary is The San Andreas Fault. While the crust moves, there are places called Hot spots in which a hot portion of the mantle rises up beneath the crust for millions of years. An example of this is the Hawaii Island

Plate boundaries are pieces of earths’ crust and upper mantle interacting with each other. There are three ways these plates can interact with each other, transform, convergent, and divergent. When plates transform to each other, they are when two plates slide past each other, currently there are transforming plates in California right now. Convergent plates are two plates going towards each other, one going other the other, and the other overlapping. The final type is divergent plates, two plates going away from each other, one of these is found between North

Ever since the beginning on time, Humans believed the ground is solid and immobile. But this is not true whatsoever. The Earth is every-changing and continually in motion. The stability of the Earth is not at all what we think it is. Thinking about the rotational axis of the Earth, and possibly of what the Earth may become at a certain point in time, has a great influence on understanding all aspects of living things, either in the past, present, or future. The Theory of Plate tectonics is accredited to most of the creations of Mountain Ranges, the Centennial drifting Theory, for earthquakes, and volcanic activity. Plate tectonics and mountains also play a big part in the Earth and its geological features.

The theory of plate tectonics states that Earth’s outer shell is divided into plates. The crust and upper mantle is broken into plates that move around on the mantle, changing in size throughout time. The lithosphere makes up the crust and upper mantle and the asthenosphere a plastic like layer beneath the lithosphere. There are three types of plate boundaries. Divergent boundaries where two plates move away from each other. The ocean widens and new crust forms at the mid-oceanic ridge. Convergent boundaries has three types of converging, moving two plates towards each other. First we have an ocean floor plate that collides with a less dense continental plate. Next an ocean floor plate collides with another ocean floor plate. Finally a continental plate collides with another continental plate. Transform boundaries were two plates slide past one another. The resulting effects of plate tectonics is landforms such as rift valleys,

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

Earth has many tectonic plates which made out the seven continents. even today there are tectonic plates that are shifting. Some say that California is shifting away from the United States. Although, Earth started out with one continent called Pangaea. There are three major types of tectonic plate boundaries. The first one is divergent, divergent is when the plates move apart from one another. The second one is subduction, subduction is when the oceanic plate moves under a continental plate. Subduction mostly causes the most violent earthquakes and volcanic activity. The last major type of boundary is transform, transform is when the plates slide back and forth against one another. Plates that are located in the Lithosphere are North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, India, Antarctica, Australia and the Pacific

Have you ever wondered why our continents are in the positions that they are in today? Plate Tectonics can be used to explain the movement of the plates and the landforms they make. These landforms include mountains, volcanoes, rift valleys, and much more that are made by convergent and divergent boundaries. The plates are moved by the convection currents below the surface which is caused by a heat source, the mantle. Another landform that is made is a mid-ocean ridge, at which sea floor spreading is taken place, and allows magma to rise and harden on the ocean floor.

The chapter presents different theoretical aspects on Plate Tectonics, which help understand how Earth is built and its internal functioning mechanisms. Central to this theory is the fact that Earth's surface is made up of several large tectonic plates and a few smaller ones, which can be either continental or oceanic, and do not necessarily have the same boundaries as the continents or oceans. These plates shift over long periods of time, movements caused by a force resulted from the planet's internal heat energy convecting mantle. There are three main types of tectonic plate boundaries: divergent (when the movement of plate tectonics causes plates to separate, which can lead, on the long term, to the separation of continents), convergent (plates sink beneath each other forming subduction zones) and transform plate boundaries (one plate scrapes past the other producing no new plate material; e.g. the San Andreas Fault in California). The movement of plate tectonics can be either very smooth, going unnoticed, or more violent, leading to earthquakes. The chapter then follows with a short geological history of North America, in order to illustrate how the discoveries regarding the movement of plate tectonics have led to new ways of thinking about the formation of continents and about the Earth's surface, the development of mountains, oceans and valleys.

Long before plate tectonics were discovered there were a lot of mysteries on how mountain ranges were formed or even how certain fossils came to be discovered in the regions in which they were found. A prime example of one of these mysteries would be the Ural Mountains. The Ural Mountains are located within continental interiors but yet there has been fossilized marine life discovered in the middle of this large landmass. This is proof that the Ural Mountains were not always the range of mountains in which they are today. This is one of the many pieces of evidence that help to support the theory of plate tectonics.

Plate tectonics allows the Earth’s crust to continually change and move. There are seven major plates and many smaller plates making up the Earth’s Lithosphere. I remember from an Astronomy course I took in Muggle school that the major plates roughly correlate to the continents of the world. There major plate names are as follows: North American, South American, African, Antarctic, Australian, the Eurasian (which encompasses both continents of Europe and Asia), and Pacific (which encompasses the entire Pacific Ocean and is actually an oceanic plate whereas the other plates are continental plates). There are three types of boundaries where the different plates meet. The first one is called transform and this is where plates slide past each other. The second one is called divergent and is where plates move away from each other. And the third type of boundary is subduction where an oceanic plate moves under a continental plate. With a subduction boundary the plates continually “bump” into each other causing violent volcanoes and

Based on the information in the textbook and the instructor note, plate tectonics is the Earth’s surface divided into several plates that move slowly and change in size. I found the video Plate Tectonics: “Birth of a Theory” in session 13 very useful. It helps me understand the material easily by using the animation to illustrate the process of plate tectonics. It is amazing about the fact that the continents can be made to fit together like pieces of a picture puzzle. About 225 million years ago, the Earth seemed to contain only one piece of continent. However, as time goes by, the plate boundaries have happened. The plates that move away from one another are called divergent plate boundaries. The plates that move toward each other are called

When this occurs with an oceanic plate and a continental plate, the heavier oceanic plate will move under the lighter continental plate. Oceanic trenches can occur here. If two of the same meet, then they will both push one another upwards and form fold mountains. Both volcanoes and earthquakes occur here.

The movement of the plate techtonics over time can cause friction that leads to earthquack, geological changes, etc. The crashing of plates can change the landscape, create mountains and hills, etc. The creation of natural landscapes can occur.

Madagascar which currently occupies the African plate is the home to multiple active volcanoes that have created cones, lava flows, and crater latke as a result of their seismic activity (Christopherjevans). The area of the most consistent and seismically active volcanos is beneath the Ankarata Plateau which is located towards the middle of the island (Wikipedia). There are also natural hot springs that have resulted from the split and its repercussions on the island itself (Christopherjevans). The plate itself that it sits is a divergent boundary, meaning that it is moving away from another plate nearby and they are steadily increasing the distance between one another. For such a small island Madagascar is divided in to multiple tectonic plates such as the Antongil Block, Antananarivo Block, Belkly Belt, and the Bemarivo Belt (Wikipedia). These plates are in constant motion and are always rubbing up against or away from each other at all times. Madagascar would look completely different then it does today, had it stayed connected to the supercontinent. This country gives us a lot of good evidence of the initial split that took place millions of years ago and helps us see the repercussions of plate tectonic

The “Eight-thousanders” are the 14 highest peaks in the world. These are the only mountains on Earth which are at peaks of death zones. Death zones are areas where there is an insufficient amount of oxygen available. These mountains are located on the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges in the countries: China, India, Nepal and Pakistan (all in Asia). They are the only mountains to exceed 8,000 m above sea level. This height and the number of highest peaks drives climbers to an obsession of climbing all of the mountains in a lifetime. These high peaks in the Himalayas are mainly Fold Mountains which formed when two plates collided head on and the sides had pieces breaking off. The two plates which collided were Asia and India, which formed these mountains. The eight-thousanders are important globally because they help geologists figure out the story of how processes have created mountains and their shape on the Earth. This story is of the 14 mountains began 40 million years ago when the subcontinent of India cam into a collision with Asia, the edges of the collision created the rifts and valleys of the ranges. This is major for geologists as well as they aid a lot in telling the physical processes of how mountains