(PT) Plate Tectonics Module Overview

Plate Tectonics 

The planet Earth is made up of three main shells: the very thin, brittle crust, the mantle, and the core; the mantle and core are each divided into two parts. Understanding the surface of our Earth is difficult without first understanding the interior, or inside of the Earth. The enormous heat, and forces that exist on the inside of the Earth has formed the material on the outside. In this module you will learn about the layers of the Earth. You will become familiar with several theories, including the Theory of Plate Tectonics and Continental Drift. You will use these theories to explain the formation of the continents that we currently know. You will learn how scientists predict earthquakes, and how they measure the strength of them. The last lesson will focus on volcanoes.

Essential Questions:

  • What should be considered when developing a model of Earth's layers?
  • How do earth's plates move?
  • What are the affects of physical processes on geological features?
  • How do scientists predict earthquakes?
  • What are the types of volcanoes?

Key Terms

  1. Lithosphere - the outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle, approximately 100 km thick
  2. Asthenosphere - a zone of the earth's mantle that lies beneath the lithosphere and consists of several hundred kilometers of deformable rock
  3. Convection current - current in Earth's mantle that transfers heat in Earth's interior and is the driving force for plate tectonics
  4. Density - the mass per unit volume of a substance under specified conditions of pressure and temperature
  5. Basalt - a hard, dense, dark volcanic rock
  6. Magnetic field - a condition found in the region around a magnet or an electric current
  7. Crust - outermost solid part of the earth
  8. Mantle - the layer of the earth between the crust and the core
  9. Upper mantle - the portion of the mantle below a depth of about 600 miles
  10. Inner core - the central part of the earth's core
  11. Outer core - the upper zone of the earth's core
  12. Oceanic plates – a thick mass of igneous rock which lies under the ocean floor
  13. Continental plates – thick continental crust
  14. Fossil – a remnant or trace of an organism or a past geologic age
  15. Pangea – a hypothetical supercontinent that included all the landmasses of the earth before the Triassic Period
  16. Theory of Tectonic Plates – describes the large scale motions of earth's lithosphere
  17. Tectonic plates – any one of the internally rigid crustal blocks of the lithosphere which move horizontally across the earth's surface relative to one another
  18. Continental drift – the movement, formation, or re-formation of continents described by the theory of plate tectonics
  19. Convergent boundary - tectonic plates collide with each other
  20. Divergent boundary - tectonic plates are moving away from each other
  21. Transform boundary - tectonic plates are not moving directly toward or directly away from each other but rather two tectonic plates grind past each other in a horizontal direction

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