 Billions of years ago the earths outer crust turned solid forming the planet known as earth lying just above the mantle.  The crust is not a solid shell, it is actually broken up into huge, thick plates that drift that drift atop the soft underlying mantle.  The tectonic plates only move vertical and horizontal, they don’t just move wherever. After time the plates also change size. These tectonic plates are from about 50 to 250 miles think in width.  when two or more land masses on plates collide it is called a collision boundary.  A transform boundary is when two plates slide against one another.  When on plate slides under another much like a sandwich it is called subduction boundary or convergent boundary.  There is also spreading boundary which is caused when two plates move away from each other and allow molten rock or magma to rise to earth’s surfaces.  earth/Continents.shtml earth/Continents.shtml

 In 1912 Alford Wegner discovered the great theory of continental drift.  He had geographical, geological, and paleontological evidence to prove his theory.  The Pangaea continent was originally created around the Paleozoic era back 650 million years ago.  It went back and forth and drifted apart for many millions of years.  Yet it still incorporated all of the 7 continents that we still have today.  Although the continents were once together they are now very far apart fro each other. Some have more distance than the other.  His discoveries all have to do with the earth or astronomy.  “Arm in arm- together we can discover knowledge.” 

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 Q1-A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving toward each other. If the two plates are of equal density, they usually push up against each other, forming a mountain chain. If they are of unequal density, one plate usually sinks beneath the other in a subduction zone. The western coast of South America and the Himalayan Mountains are convergent plate boundaries.  Q2-Volcanoes and mountain ranges arise from the happening of a convergent boundary.  Q3- The western coast of South America and the Himalayan Mountains are convergent plate boundaries. The western coast of South America and the Himalayan Mountains are convergent plate boundaries. The ring of fire is also a convergent boundary, along with many more.  

 Q1- A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving away from each other and new crust is forming from magma that rises to the Earth's surface between the two plates.  Q2- Volcanoes are the most dangerous for divergent boundaries because they move apart slowly causing deadly amounts of hot magma lava up to the surface of the earth.  Q3- The middle of the Red Sea and the mid-ocean ridge (running the length of the Atlantic Ocean) are divergent plate boundaries.  

 Q1- Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates slide past one another. The fracture zone that forms a transform plate boundary is known as a transform fault.  Q2- The earthquakes are usually shallow because they occur within and between plates that are not involved in subduction. Volcanic activity is normally not present/ doesn’t happen that often.  Q3- Most transform faults are found in the ocean basin and connect offsets in the mid-ocean ridges. A smaller number connect mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones.  

 Q1- The united states is located on the North American Plate.  Q2- the plates that surround us are the Caribbean plate on the eastern part of the united states and the Juan De Fuca on the western border of California or around there.  Q3- Plate destruction wise there shouldn’t be looking at the movement of the plates it looks like we are in no serious trouble we may have some earthquakes from the path of the Caribbean plate but nothing big and by the look of it, it should only touch the eastern coast. Yet in some ways there are possibilities of the Juan De Fuca plate touching/ harming the western coast of California.  Q4- By the look of the path of the Juan De Fuca plate it looks like they will start off slightly disturbing the western coast and then will turn into an bigger amount of destruction depending on the speed of movement of the plate, and the density of the plate.  

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As on the two previous slides there are a lot of real world connections going on all over the world. Such as mudslides(shown bottom left), landslides, mountains, trenches, or even volcanoes, and earth quakes all more deadly than the previous. We cant do anything about it and we surely cant stop them from happening but now that we know more about these torturous dangers and know why this happened and how this happened. Its always better and more useful when we have knowledge of something and now we do.

Now we know a little bit more about PLATE TECTONICS!!!!