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Plate tectonics notes
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- 2. •TEKS 8.9B relateplate tectonics to the formation of crustal features; •TEKS 6.10C identify the major tectonic plates •TEKS 6.10D describe how plate tectonics causes major geological events such as ocean basins, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building
- 3. Plate tectonics describes the meansby which the ocean and continental crust are able to move and the results of that motion. What is Plate Tectonics?
- 4. Key plates: • Eurasian •African • Indo-Australian The crust of Earth is divided into plates. •Pacific •Nazca •North American •South American
- 5. The plates arerigid and in constant motion relative to one another.
- 6. What Causes the TectonicPlates to Move?
- 7. Intense heat fromthe core of the Earth causes convection cells to form in the asthenosphere.
- 8. The Earth’s continentaland oceanic plates sit on the hot asthenosphere. While the rock in the asthenosphere is solid, it is less rigid than the plates, and therefore moves.
- 9. While scientists do notfully understand the forces that move the plates, it is believed that the moving material in the asthenosphere drags the plates along.
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- 11. Each plate moves asa distinct unit. The borders between plates are called plate boundaries.
- 12. There are threedifferent kinds of motion that occurs between the tectonic plates. •Divergent Plate Boundary •Transform Plate Boundary
- 13. Even though themotion of the plates is very slow; about 10- 40 mm/year (this is about how fast your fingernails grow), the motion causes major geologic events and surface features. I can out run the tectonic plates!
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- 16. DIVERGENT Motion: plates move away from one another Geologic Event: •new crust isformed •shallow earthquakes Surface Feature: •Rifts •Rift valleys •Volcanic islands •mid- ocean ridge
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- 19. CONVERGENT Surface Features: • volcanoes • Islandarcs • Volcanic arcs • Trenches • Mountain ranges
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