Created by María Jesús Campos, Social Studies, Geography and History teacher in a bilingual section in Madrid

1. María Jesús Campos
learningfromgeography.wikispaces.com

2. Lithosphere
Itcomes from the
ancient Greek “lithos”
which means stone and
“sphaira” which means
sphere.
Itrefers to the solid
rocky crust that covers
the Earth.
The crust is composed
of minerals.

3.  The crust is a solid layer that floates
over the mantle’s magma.It represents
1% of the Earth’s volume but it has
different thickness and length.
 The crust is divided into tectonic plates
that move over the mantle.
 The crust presents different shapes,
lenghts, etc. Some times it appears
under the oceans and others over the
sea surface. This is called the Earth’s
relief.
 The shapes of the Earth’s relief changes
thanks to internal forces and external
agents.

4.  200 million years ago all the
continents were united into a
single supercontinent called
Pangea.
 Pangea broke up because of
the internal forces of the
mantel and the tectonic
plates gradually moved apart.
This theory is called
continental drift.
 Tectonic plates slide against
each other or move apart.
Thus, the plate’s boundaries
are unstable.

8.  Internal forces and pressures from the mantle causes
the crust to:
 Fold: are deformations of the Earth’s surface where
rock layers bend.
 Fault: are breaks in rock layers wher the rock is too
hard to bend.
 Subducts: when one rock layer from a plate sinks
under the other and its materials melts into the
mantle’s magma.

10.  Sometimes this pressures
apperar in the form of :
 Earhtquakes:
they happen when
energy is released in
seismic waves from a
focus or hypocentre
inside the Earth usually
when the boundaries of
the plates slide against
each other.
 Volcanoes:
are cracks on the
Earth’s crust and
magma from the
mantle erupts ro the
surface and solidify
creating new crust.

11.  The external agents
that shape the
Earth’s surface are:
 Water
 Wind
 Vegetation
 They erode relief
breaking it up and
transporting and
depositing eroded
materials on a
different place.
 Although human
beings are not
natural agents they
also modify relief.

12.  The crust presents different shapes, lenghts,
etc. Some times it appears under the oceans
and others over the sea surface. This is called
the Earth’s relief.
 The Earth’s relief comprises the forms and
shapes of the Earth’s surface.

13.  Sometimes the Earth’s  The North Pole is not a
crust appears over the continent because it is
sea surface and other formed by frosted
times under the sea water.
surface.
 Continents are
 Over the sea surface separated by oceans or
there are 6 continents: seas:
 Africa  Pacific Ocean
 Europe  Atlantic Ocean
 América  Indian Ocean
 Asia  Artic Ocean
 Oceania  Antartic Ocean or
 Antarctica Southern Ocean
 Mediterranean Sea
 Read Sea

15.  Mountains: High  Valley: elongated lowland
elevations of the Earth’s between ranges of
surface. When they are mountains or hills.
grouped together it is
called range.
 Península: land mass
 Plateau: high flat areas entirely surrounded by
that are formed from water except in one part
eroded mountains. connected with the
mainland which is called
 Plain: low flat areas. isthmus.
Alluvial plains are formed
by rivers and coastal  Island: a land mass
plains are near the sea. entirely surrounded by
water.
 Basins: very low areas
sometimes below sea  Cape: part of the coast
level. that projects into the sea.

18.  Gulf: large area of a  Continental slope: the
sea or ocean partially descent from the
enclosed by land. continental shelf to the
 Bay: small area of a ocean bottom.
sea or ocean partially  Abyssal plain: huge
enclosed by land. under water plains that
 Ría: long narrow inlet have an extension
of the seacoast in between 3000 and
which the sea occupies 7000 metres deep.
the mouth of the river.  Ocean trench: long
 Continental shelf: valley on the ocean floor
great underwater that can have 11000
plateau which metres deep.
correspondt to the  Ocean ridge:
border of a continent underwater mountain
and is usually less than ranges.
400 metres deep.

20. Created by María Jesús Campos
Chusteacher
Wikiteacher