1. Click on Did you know? Read and discuss w a partner.
Open Class Website
Current Unit: Earth's Features
Access this PowerPoint
& Website
Go to the website:
Click on Did you know? Read and discuss w a partner.

2. It is only by combing the information furnished by all the earth sciences that we can hope to determine "truth" here.
—Alfred L. Wegener,

3. History of Investigating Supporting Evidence
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
What type of SIM device will we use today?
How will it help you as a learner?
We will use the FRAME to help us understand the history and evidence for the Theory of Plate Tectonics.

4. Focus on Key Topic: Theory of Plate Tectonics
Explore in l

5. The Problem…
The Himalayas are often referred to as the "roof of the world" because they have the highest peaks on earth, including Mt. Everest at 8,848 meters above sea level.
The rock that caps Mt. Everest is limestone, which forms at the bottom of warm, shallow seas and is composed entirely of fossilized marine creatures, everything from plankton to clams and fish.
For years, geologists struggled to explain how the hardened remains of tiny sea organisms could exist at the top of a mountain range.

6. Theory of Plate Tectonics
The Earth’s Crust is made of solid, rigid rock. The crust is broken into a dozen or more sections of varying sizes called “plates.” Forces in the softer rock below the crust move the plates in different directions on the surface of the Earth. The moving plates cause massive geological changes, including earthquakes, mountain building, and volcanic activity.

7. The Theory of Plate Tectonics
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics

8. Reveal Main Ideas TEKS 8.9A: The student will be able to
describe the historical development of evidence that supports plate tectonic theory.
Essential Question: What evidence supports
the theory of continental drift?

9. History of Investigating Supporting Evidence
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics

10. Analyze Details: Explore Activity
C: partner work
H: note the location of fossils & rock formations
A: match the continents to recreate Pangea
M: Stay at table, get device when done
P: complete,then check out this website
S: success

12. Topic: Continental Drift Essential Question: What evidence supports the theory of continental drift?
Alfred Wegener In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift Continental Drift All of the continents were once connected together to form the super continent, Pangaea

13. History of Investigating Supporting Evidence
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift -

14. Topic: Continental Drift Essential Question: What evidence supports the theory of continental drift?
Continental Drift All of the continents have drifted to where they are now Earth’s lithosphere (crust) is divided into tectonic plates

15. History of Investigating Supporting Evidence
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift - All of the continents have drifted to where they are now; Earth’s lithosphere (crust) is divided into tectonic plates.

16. Topic: Continental Drift Essential Question: What evidence supports the theory of continental drift?
Evidence Africa and South America’s coastlines fit together like a puzzle

17. Topic: Continental Drift Essential Question: What evidence supports the theory of continental drift?
Evidence Fossils and types of rocks on the eastern coast of S. America matched those on the west coast of Africa

18. History of Investigating Supporting Evidence
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift - All of the continents have drifted to where they are now; Earth’s lithosphere (crust) is divided into tectonic plates.
The coasts of S. America & Africa match like puzzle pieces w matching fossils & rock features.

19. A closer look…

20. But nobody believed him…
They laughed!
“What makes the continents move?” They said, “We don’t see them move!”

21. Google Earth: What does the ocean floor look like?
Before ships equipped with sonar started mapping the ocean floor in the 1920s, the crust below the seas was thought to be flat and boring.
World War I: Ships used sonar to scan for submarines, by the end of the war we had a map of the ocean floor.
What do you think they found? I predict…

23. There was Hess and the idea of sea floor spreading & subduction.

24. Topic: Continental Drift Essential Question: What evidence supports the theory of continental drift?
Harry Hess
proposed that at mid-ocean ridges, magma flows up from the mantle and forms new crust on both sides of the ridge
This new crust makes the ocean floor wider and pushes the continents surrounding it further away from each other
1960's

25. History of Investigating Supporting Evidence
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
Harry Hess proposed the idea of
sea floor spreading
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift - All of the continents have drifted to where they are now; Earth’s lithosphere (crust) is divided into tectonic plates.
The coasts of S. America & Africa match like puzzle pieces w matching fossils & rock features.

26. Volcanic activity occurred along these ridges.
More Evidence from WWI
The sonar maps showed that the ocean floor had incredible deep valleys, mountain chains higher than the North American Rockies, and huge plains.
A long ridge was found to run down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, rising 1 to 2 km above the surrounding ocean floor that paralleled the continental coasts on both sides.
Similar mid-ocean ridges were mapped in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the western Indian Ocean.
Volcanic activity occurred along these ridges.
Clearly, the ridges had something to do with continental drift, but what?

27. Topic: Continental Drift Essential Question: What evidence supports the theory of continental drift?
Evidence Scientists were able to use new technology to find ocean features such as trenches, seamount chains (mountains on the sea floor), and mid-ocean ridges

28. Mid-Atlantic ridge is a mountain range
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
Harry Hess proposed the idea of
sea floor spreading & subduction
Mid-Atlantic ridge is a mountain range
That runs parallel to the coasts
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift - All of the continents have drifted to where they are now; Earth’s lithosphere (crust) is divided into tectonic plates.
The coasts of S. America & Africa match like puzzle pieces w matching fossils & rock features.

29. How does this evidence support the concept of sea floor spreading?
2 volunteers, please
How does this evidence support the concept of sea floor spreading?

30. World War II: More evidence!
The same year that Hess proposed his theory, the U.S. Navy published a report (1963) that summarized findings concerning seafloor magnetism.
Evidence found during World War II, ships dragging devices to measure magnetism found bands of alternating strong and weak magnetism in the rocks of the seafloor (originally these magnetometers had been designed to locate submarines).
These bands, irregular in width, not only paralleled the mid-ocean ridges, but were patterned symmetrically about the crest of these ridges.

31. How does this evidence support the concept of sea floor spreading?
The bands of sea floor magnetism is evidence that supports sea floor spreading because…

32. Mid-Atlantic ridge is a mountain range
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
WWI: sonar used, map of ocean floor
Harry Hess proposed the idea of
sea floor spreading & subduction
Mid-Atlantic ridge is a mountain range
That runs parallel to the coasts
They found younger rocks near the
mid- ocean ridge and older crust near
the coast lines.
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift - All of the continents have drifted to where they are now; Earth’s lithosphere (crust) is divided into tectonic plates.
The coasts of S. America & Africa match like puzzle pieces w matching fossils & rock features.
WWII The US Navy reports finding bands of alternating strong and weak magnetism in the rocks of the seafloor.

33. Quake feed App I observe the location of earthquakes are found…
Optional: Download the app and make an observation about the location of the recent earthquakes.

34. And today!
Today, much of the evidence concerning plate tectonics is acquired with satellite technology.
Through use of the global positioning system (GPS) and other satellite-based data collection techniques, scientists can directly measure the movement and speed of plates on the surface of the earth.
Speeds range from 10 to 100 mm per year, confirming the long-held belief that plates move at a slow but constant rate.

35. It continues…
The earth is incredibly dynamic - mountain chains build and erode away, volcanoes erupt and go extinct, seas advance and recede - and these changes are all a result of the processes of plate tectonics.

36. Today, we use satellite technology, GPS,
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes massive geological changes to Earth’s Crust, including earthquakes, mountain
building, and volcanic activity.
Harry Hess proposed the idea of
sea floor spreading & subduction
Today, we use satellite technology, GPS,
to measure the movement and speed of plates; .
Mid-Atlantic ridge is a mountain range
That runs parallel to the coasts
They found younger rocks near the
mid- ocean ridge and older crust near
the coast lines.
History of Investigating
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Supporting Evidence
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
In the early 1900’s Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift - All of the continents have drifted to where they are now; Earth’s lithosphere (crust) is divided into tectonic plates.
The coasts of S. America & Africa match like puzzle pieces w matching fossils & rock features.
The US Navy reports finding bands of alternating strong and weak magnetism in the rocks of the seafloor.
Confirming that plates move at a
slow but constant rate

37. Now let’s write a summary
Look at each question and answer each in a complete sentence.
-What is the Plate Tectonics Theory? The Theory of Plate Tectonics states….
-Which scientist was the first to propose such a theory? The scientist who first proposed the idea of continental drift was …
-What are 3 pieces of evidence that support the theory that plates are moving? The supporting evidence is …, …, and…

38. “Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
Name:____________________________
Date:_____________________________
Class Period:____________________
the history and evidence that supports the earths lithosphere is made of tectonic plates that are moving on top of the
anthenosphere. This movement causes ___________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________.
“Why are there earthquakes & volcanoes?”
The FRAME Routine
Key Topic
is about…
So What? (What’s important to understand about this?)
Essential Details

39. Extend learning: Timeline project
Objective: You will create a timeline of the human understanding of "How the Earth Works?"
Extend learning: Timeline project

40. What is the history of how humans began to understand and analyze how the Earth works?
Behavior Expectations
Timeline Requirements
C- Partner Work
H-frame& table partner only
A- timeline of history and evidence of the Theory of Plate Tectonics
M-stay at your table & ask to move
P- complete by end of class.
Define the Theory of Plate Tectonics
Date, date range
4 discoveries w supporting evidence
Neat & Organized
Name, Date, Class Period