Plate Techtonics

What is the structure of the earth?

The
o
o
o

earth is made up of 3 main layers

Core
Mantle
Crust

What is the Crust

Continental Crust
o Thick
o Buoyant
Oceanic Crust
What is plate techtonics?
Continental Drift
o Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of the
continental drift in the early 1900s
o Continents fit together like a puzzle
o Same fossils in different continents
o Rock sequences are similar
Seafloor Spreading
o Henry Hess discovered Seafloor Spreading
What is divergent boundry?
Divergent = Plates moving apart
As plates move apart new material erupts
o Iceland: an example of continental rifting
Ice land has divergent plate boundary
running through its middle
What is convergent boundary?

 There are three styles of convergent plate

boundaries
Forms folded mountains, e.g. European Alps,
Himalayas
Continent to oceanic collision is called subduction
-Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision
What is Transform Boundaries?
Where plates slide past each other
EARTHQUAKES