SUBDUCTION AND PLATE TECTONICS

Convection currents in the magma drive plate tectonics. As the plates move away from the spreading centers, they cool, and the higher density basalt rocks that make up the ocean crust get consumed at the ocean trenches/subduction zones. The crust is recycled back to the upper mantle (asthenosphere)

2 convergent plates collide with 1 another. SUBDUCTION -  is a geological process that takes place at convergent boundaries of tectonic plates where one plate moves under another and is forced or sinks due to gravity into the mantle 2 convergent plates collide with 1 another. The denser plate (oceanic plate) slides under the less dense plate. The oceanic plate is heated and melted by the magma in the Earth’s mantle Volcanoes form at the junction of the 2 plates.

Mineral Formation Minerals form on the surface through evaporation of solutions containing dissolved minerals Minerals can form beneath the surface when dissolved elements and compounds leave hot water solution or when magma cools and hardens.

The unequal distribution of Earth’s resources (including minerals, energy, and groundwater) is a result of past and current geological processes For example: 1. Petroleum – locations of the burial of organic marine sediments and subsequent geological traps (changes in geology that prevent the petroleum from moving and forms a reservoir). 2. Metal ores – locations of past volcanic and hydrothermal activity (when water containing a lot of minerals is heated and migrates through the cracks) associated with subduction zones. 3. Soil – locations of active weathering and/or deposition of rocks

WHERE do we find the resources? The environment or conditions that formed the resources are specific to certain areas and/or times on Earth, thus identifying why those resources are found only in those specific places/periods