Plate Tectonics

Our Planet is approximately 4.5 billion years old.

A Little History.......
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About 240 million years ago the continents were all one giant land mass . It was called PANGEA. The theory of Continental Drift was proposed in 1912 by Alfred Wegener.

This theory was not generally accepted until the 1960s, at which time it became called the science of Plate Tectonics.

Problems?
Wegeners theory was not accepted because he could not explain how the continents drifted apart. Arthur Holmes proposed that the Earths mantle was a hot , soupy layer that the continents slid around on.

Slip, Sliding
The places where the earths cracks meet are called boundarys.

Away......

There are 3 types of boundarys: Transform, Divergent, and Convergent.

Types of Boundarys.....
Divergent- plates separate and move away from each other- sea floor spreading.

Convergent- plates move towards each other. This is how mountain ranges are formed. Subduction occurs when the heavier (more dense) plate moves under the lighter (less dense) plate.

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Transform- this occurs when plates are sliding in opposite directions next to each other (most earthquakes occur at these boundarys).

The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a Transform Boundary.