Plate Tectonics…what is it? Plate tectonics is the theory that explains the formation, movement and subduction of Earth’s plates

How do the Plates move? The plates of the Earth move because of Convection Currents in the asthenosphere rising and causing the movement.

What happens when the plates move? No plate can budge without affecting the other plates surrounding it. As the plates move, they collide pull apart, or grind past each other producing changes in the Earth’s surface.

What kind of Changes? Volcanoes! Earthquakes! Mountain ranges! Sea-trenches!

Where are these plates? IN THE LITHOSPHERE!

PROOF or it didn’t happen… EVIDENCE #1 The continents used to fit together like puzzle pieces before the plates moved them apart Scientists call this Supercontinenet: PANGAEA How do I say that?? PAN-GEE-UH

As the plates continued to move and separate, OCEANS formed Landmasses collided and split apart until they ended up where they are now

PROOF or it didn’t happen… EVIDENCE #2 Fossils on different continents are similar to fossils on continents that were once connected. When the continents split, different life forms developed. Continents that were once connected also have identical landform shapes and features and identical rock formations

PROOF or it didn’t happen… EVIDENCE #3 Most features on land and in the ocean are the result of geological activity and earthquakes along plate boundaries (where the pieces meet). The exact patterns depend on HOW the plates are moving… together – apart – or sliding.

What else do we know? The plates are still moving!! Though they move VERY SLOWLY  between 1-10 centimeters per year

What else do we know? There are places within the lithosphere where magma rises and leaks through the crust This is called a HOT SPOT and is where volcanic activity occurs. HOTSPOTS are how the Hawaiian islands were formed!!