OUR CHANGING EARTH

Q. What are lithospheric plates?

Answer: The earth’s crust consists of several large and some small,
rigid, irregularly shaped plates which carry continents and the ocean
floor are known as lithospheric plates.
The lithosphere is broken into a number of plates known as
lithospheric plates.
Q. Why do the plates move?
Answer: The plates move because of the movement of the molten
magma inside the earth. The molten magma inside the earth moves in
a circular manner.
Q. What are endogenic and exogenic forces?
Answer: ENDOGENIC FORCES: The forces which act in the interior of
the earth are called as endogenic forces.

EXOGENIC FORCES: The forces that work on the surface of the earth
are called as exogenic forces.
Q. What is a volcano? Draw a neat and labelled diagram of volcano.
Answer: A volcano is a vent (opening) in the earth’s crust through
which molten material erupts suddenly.

A Volcano
Q. What is an earthquake?
Answer: When the lithospheric plates move, the surface of the earth
vibrates. The vibrations can travel all around the earth. These
vibrations are called earthquakes.
Q. Define focus and epicentre?
Answer: FOCUS: The place in the crust where the movement starts is
called the focus.

EPICENTRE: The place on the surface above the focus is called the
epicentre.
Q. Name the machine and the scale to measure magnitude of an
earthquake.
Answer: SEISMOGRAPH is a machine which is used to measure the
magnitude of an earthquake. The magnitude of the earthquake is
measured on the Richter scale.