The Crust Research Paper

The lithosphere is defined as the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and the upper mantle; it is the solid, out part of earth. The picture

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,

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 three major types of tectonic plates are divergent, subduction and transform. Divergent plates tend to move apart from each other. Subduction plates are when oceanic plate moves under a continental plate. This can cause volcanos to erupt and large sized earthquakes. Transform plates slide back and forth against one another. The Lithosphere consists of the Earths crust and uppermost mantle. The North American plate and the South American plate are the major plates of the lithosphere. The lithosphere also consists of the Pacific plate, the African plate and the Eurasian plate. The Pacific plate is the only major plate that is mainly underwater and is also the largest plate in the lithosphere. The Earth was once one large continental body called Pangea, before the plates started

The breaking apart of this supercontinent was due to the movement of the Earth's Tectonic Plates. Tectonic Plates are large masses of the lithosphere or outer layer of the Earth's surface. The layers included in the Lithosphere are the Crust up to the upper layer of the Mantle. The Oceanic Crust is thinner and denser than the Continental Crust and can be found underneath the ocean. It is also more active than the Continental Crust that stretches 200 km below the Earth's surface. This crust drifts and moves either horizontally or vertically causing geological phenomenons such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. The major tectonic plates are North American, Caribbean, South American, Scotia, Antarctic, Eurasian, Arabian, African, Indian, Philippine, Australian, Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, and Nazca. These plates move an estimate of 1 to 10 cm per year causing interaction at plate boundaries. When two plates are colliding or moving toward each other it is in Convergent boundaries. If these two plates are Oceanic Crusts, they are in Subduction zones wherein the denser plate in forced beneath the less dense plate and would eventually melt or destroy. On the other hand, when two plates move away from each other it is in Divergent boundaries. New crust material from molten magma formed below may fill the space between these plates or become ocean basins.

Like the other terrestrial planets, Earth’s interior is divided into layers which are distinguished by their chemical or physical properties. These layers consist of a core composed of iron and nickel, an upper and lower mantle composed of viscous silicates, and a crust composed of solid silicate materials.

A hot spot is fed by a region deep within the Earth’s mantle from which heat rises through the process of convection. This heat facilitates the melting of rock at the base of the lithosphere, where the brittle, upper portion of the mantle meets the Earth’s crust. The melted rock, known as magma, often pushes through cracks in the crust to form volcanoes.

Have you ever wondered why the Earth looks the way it does today? Well, you are not the only one. Not too long ago was it that scientist asked themselves the same question and were able to come up with an answer. Now, lets take a quick look back at that question. Why do the continents look the way they do? Well, the short answer is basically plate tectonics. What is that you say? Plate tectonics is a theory that describes the formation, movements, and interactions of the Earth's lithosphere with its' asthenosphere. The lithospheric layer of Earth's crust is broken into plates that move on the asthenosphere, the layer located under. This theory is what basically explains how continents, volcanoes, and mountains got where they are today. Now,

A subduction zone is a region on the crust of the earth where two tectonics plate meet one another. The area where the two plates meet is called a plate boundary. When two plates meet at a subduction zone, they converge towards each other, and one these tectonic plates come into contact with each other, one bends and slides underneath another, resulting in one curving down to the mantle. In this circumstance when subduction is taking place the denser plate is the one that sinks beneath the other. On the earth’s surface there are two main types of crust; the oceanic and the continental. The continental isn’t as dense as the oceanic making it slide above while the oceanic subducts down, in a convection motion to recycle itself then be remade when it pushes itself up. The place the denser medium goes towards is the mantle that consists of molten rock and it accounts to 84% of earths volume. Subduction only takes effect when two plates of different density collide, for if two continental crusts converge and push together neither will subduct, so it will be like a car crash where the two mediums smash into each other but neither subducts, as an example of this event look to the Himalayas that were

The Earth is separated in layers based on composition and mechanical properties. The top layer is the lithosphere, which is comprised of the solid upper mantle and the crust. It is divided into plates that move due to tectonic forces. The lithosphere floats on top of a semi-liquid layer that is called the asthenosphere. The asthenosphere allows the lithosphere to move around since it is much weaker (Tarbuck p605).

It holds an ocean's worth of water locked up in a type of mineral, and the mineral is called Ringwoodite. Scientist have predicted that there was an area between the crust and mantle 255 to 410 miles below Earth's surface that could contain water trapped in rare minerals but never had any evidence. They conducted experiments and studied models and they discovered that the mantle material is melting as it crosses the boundary between the transition zone and the lower mantle layer. Brandon Schmandt, a seismologist at the University of New Mexico says, "The transition zone can hold a lot of water, and could potentially have the same amount of H2O [water] as all the world's oceans." Which helps prove the inside out

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

Earth is in fact an intricate planet that has multiple layers of differing compositions. To be exact the earth has four main layers. The uppermost layer is the one humans come in most contact with, the crust. The crust consists of “thin silicate rock material”(Structure of the). Although the crust is not entirely the same. Actually there are two distinct types of crust, oceanic and continental. “The continental crust is made up of mostly rocks similar to granite while the oceanic crust is much denser and made up of a material similar to basalt”(Structure of the, Rose). The second layer is called the mantle. “The mantle is much denser than the crust and contains similar to the crust mostly solid silicate crust”(Structure of the). “As we travel further down the earth we wind up in the outer core. The outer core is a core of molten nickel and iron. Finally there’s the inner core. The inner is a solid metal core made up of nickel and iron”(Structure of the). All these layers functioning together cast out a magnetic

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 study of Plate tectonics is accredited to most of the creations of Mountain Ranges, the drifting of continents, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. Plate tectonics and mountains also play a big part in the geological features of our planet or any planet for that

The continental crust consists of igneous and sedimentary rocks. The oceanic crust consists of the same with a substantial layer of sediments above the rock. The crust covers the outer ridged layer of the earth called the lithosphere. The lithosphere is divided into seven main continental plates. These continental plates are constantly moving on a viscous base.