Human Geography: How Tectonic Plates Move

II: Plate tectonics shows the features and movement of the Earth. The theory of plate tectonics says that the outer shell of the earth is broken down into pieces often called plates (Korenaga). These plates hover over the mantle creating movement (Marshak). With plate tectonics you can determine the earth’s features without actually seeing it.

Chapter one in the book, Human Geography, gives a timeline of the changes that have occurred since the creation of planet Earth. The author, John Rennie Short, explained how truly powerful the earth itself is. It has the ability to wipe out humanity. We often blame nature when natural disasters happen, but perhaps the human race may have something to do with the cause of environmental hazards like volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

Earth is the only known planet in our solar system that can/does sustain life. About 200 million years ago, each continent formed a super-continent called "Pangea". Pangea split due to the movement of Earth's tectonic plates. "Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over the mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core. The plates act like a hard and rigid shell compared to Earth's mantle. This strong outer layer is called the Lithosphere.". Convergent boundaries are one of the three types of plate boundaries that occur on Earth. The other two are: divergent and transform margins. During a divergent margin, two plates are spreading apart. Transform margins show the grinding of two plate in a mostly horizontal motion. One example is the San Andreas Fault Line, where the North America and Pacific plates grind past each other in a horizontal fashion. The major plates are: North American Plate, South American Plate, Pacific Plate, African Plate, and the Eurasian Plate. "Lithospheric plates are regions of Earth's crust and upper mantle that are fractured into plates that move across a deeper plasticine mantle. Earth's crust is fractured into 13 major and approximately 20 total lithospheric plates. Each lithospheric plate is composed of a layer of oceanic crust or continental crust superficial to an outer layer of the mantle. Containing both crust and the upper region of the mantle, lithospheric plates are generally considered to be approximately 60 mi (100 km) thick. Although containing only continental crust or oceanic crust in any one cross-section, lithospheric plates may contain various sections that exclusively contain either oceanic crust or continental crust and therefore lithospheric plates may contain various combinations of oceanic and continental crust. Lithospheric plates move on top of the asthenoshpere (the outer plastically deforming region of

Plate Tectonics is a scientific theory which study how the Earth’s plates are driven and shaped by geological forces to keep them in constant movement. The theory explains the present-day tectonic behavior of the Earth, particularly the global distribution of mountain building, earthquake activity, and volcanism in a series of linear belt. (Pitman, W.C., 2007)

The Five Themes of Geography are: Location – Absolute points on a map or grid or Relative to where something may be; Place – The physical and/or human characteristics of a locations; Human/Environment Interactions – How humans have impacted the landscape or environment; Relationship between places Movement – How humans interact on the earth (i.e. how they communicate over distance (short or long)) and Regions – a unit of space that has commonalities defined by physical, human and environmental geography. The Explorers of the New World may have not known what the Five Themes of Geography were but they quickly learned. Of the five themes the ones that they all took advantage of was the physical Location and Place as they learned to navigate

The earth’s surface is made up of many separate pieces called tectonic plates. These tectonic plates are in constant movement. This

Over the course of the centuries maps have been used to find locations all over the world. They have evolved and to become more advanced, thanks to technology. Of course, there are specific ways to use a map such as basic components. Basic components include a compass rose which indicates the cardinal directions. Legends is the key where symbols are used to help find a point on the map, or in other words, lead the way. A scale can range from as far as a continent to as close as a house. All these components are important while using a map.

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

Australia is one of the continents over the world. The vast, varied land and the culture in this abundant place has a deep and lasting impact to the architectural design traditions—Tectonic. Tectonic can be regarded as one distinctive characteristic which is relating to building or architectural construction. It also gives ability for people to read a structure, or see how a structure was put together. Among those architects who had used this tradition in their designs, Donovan Hill and Glenn Murcutt, as Australian architectures, have their own style relates to tectonic. For example, Donovan Hill composes different materials and layered against with one another in D House, while Murcutt establishes a harmonious connection to the surrounding landscape and local climate with Magney House.

It is believed that our ancestors came from africa into eurasia. One thing that made human geography flourished was plant and animal domestication. When people became building water building bases, the most prominent cultures sustained local expansion. A thousand years ago China has the largest population and still does. The greatest changes over the past millennium were not with eurasia and africa but with america and australia because the europeans decimated the people already there. People in eurasia and africa and aboriginal australians, they had not changed their natural environment. One of the thing that changes the environment is climate change. The point is that boundaries are created to limit human movement.

What makes Earth’s plates move? convection currents in the mantle is what moves the plates.

Thanks to static electricity ice, dirt, rocks and other grains of solid material slowly began to gather together forming bigger pieces, those pieces formed bigger pieces, having a “snowball” effect. They eventually became big enough to have their own gravitational field which then collected more material, eventually creating a planet. More material meant more mass, which gave the forming planet even more gravity. With tons and tons of material, and gravity pushing it together, intense pressure causes intense heat. This combination of pressure and heat gives the earth its molten interior.

rapidly cooling molten rock so the best thing to do if you see a lave

Maybe some people will think human geography has no relation between physical geography. But I think human geography has a great effect on physical geography, and physical geography has a great effect on human geography too.

When collisions between plates occur, the crust is pushed up sometimes forming ranges of mountains. This is the way that most