Tectonic Plates

                      Forming Mountains                                           Subduction zones

             
                Divergent Boundaries                                                  Materials Needed




                 Spreading Frosting                                                   Transform Boundaries

Have you every felt an earthquake before? Or seen a volcano erupt? Did you ever wonder why those things happen? Well the reason that these things happen is because of plate tectonics; The movement of the different pieces of crust caused by the convection currents of the mantle. Before we get into plate tectonic and earthquakes and volcanoes, lets look at it's history. Plate tectonics was discovered back in the 1900's by a scientist named Alfred Wegener. He first discovered that the plates moved when he looked at a map and realized that some of the continents looked like they could fit together. After a long time and lots of research Alfred Wegener was able to fit the continents together AND found lots of evidence to prove his point. Like fossils of dinosaurs that couldn't swim but were found on two sides of the ocean. Or rock formations of the same type from the same time period but on different continents. Though he had a lot of evidence, he still did not now how the continents moved. When he presented his idea's to the world of science he was laughed at and not taken seriously. It was only after Alfred Wegener died that scientists were able to discover tectonic plates. For, it was not the continents moving, it was the tectonic plates they sat on that was moving. But overall Alfred Wegener was right, Pangea, his super continent, was an actual thing.

Now that we have the background of plate tectonics, we can talk about what it is. Tectonic plates is the name that we give to the pieces of the earths crust. Now these plates move because of the convection currents in the earths mantle. You can't see them move, but you can feel it. This is where plate boundaries come in. Plate boundaries are the places where to plates meet. There are different types of boundaries that all give different results. There are divergent boundaries; where to plates push apart from each other and create mid-ocean ridges and valley rifts. There are transform boundaries; where to plates slide past each other and create fault lines and earthquakes. There are oceanic and continental crust collision boundaries; where oceanic and continental crusts collide and the oceanic crust goes under the continental crust and gets recycled back into the earth. This creates subduction zones and sometimes volcanoes further inland. Then there is continental crust collision boundaries; where to continental crusts push against each other to create mountains. So next time you see that there is going to be an earthquake in your area, you can thank Alfred Wegener for the heads up.

S&EP
SP2: Building models

I showed my work through a model when I did a lab on plate tectonics. I used frosting as the mantles and gram crackers and fruit roll ups as the crust. I then represented each type of boundary and what the affects where. After this I had a better understanding of how the plates moved and how that affects the earth.

XCC
Cross-Cutting Concept: Cause and effect

The whole process of plate tectonics is a big cause and effect story. You see, every type of boundary or way that a plate moves affects things. For example, at a transform boundary when the two plates slide past each other it then creates fault lines and earthquakes. The cause being that the plates are sliding past each other and the effect being the fault lines and earthquakes. This cause and effect is true for all kinds of plate boundaries. You just have to plug in the information, like the movement of the plate, and then what does that movement of the plate do to the earth, like form mountains or volcanoes.