Causes of Plate Movements

Learning Competency

At the end of this lesson, the given DepEd learning competency should
be met by the students.

Describe the possible causes of plate movement

(S10ES–Ia-j-36.5).
 Learning Objectives

At the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to do the

following:

● Identify the causes of plate movements.

● Discuss the mechanism on how tectonic plates move.
It was postulated that continents today
were once part of a supercontinent
called Pangea.

These landmasses have since drifted

apart and are now located in different
areas.

What makes the continents move?

 Try it!
Warm-Up

Heat and Steam

https://interactives.ck12.org/simulations/chemistry/phases-of-ma
tter/app/index.html?screen=sandbox

1. How did water change phase in this activity?

2. What is the density of water in each phase? How does it
affect the movement of water?
3. Why did the water level decrease?
Learn about It

Factors Affecting Plate Movements

Solid-state Hotspots
flow model
Relies on Areas with
temperature and abnormally high
phase changes. volcanic activity
 Learn about It

Solid-State Flow Model

● Radioactivity causes magma

to rise where it expands to
produce the plates above
Earth’s surface.

Water circulation in a kettle showing

water’s evaporation and condensation
 Learn about It

Solid-State Flow Model

● The older, denser plates

descend, replacing the hotter
material below.

• It can be likened to a kettle.

Water circulation in a kettle showing
water’s evaporation and condensation
 Learn about It

Gravitational Factors
● Ridge push: This is a force that
causes hotter, less dense material to
force itself up through a ridge.

● Slab pull: This is the pulling of

oceanic lithosphere downward at Ridge-push and slab-pull mechanisms
subduction zones.
 Learn about It

Hot Spots
● These are areas with
abnormally high volcanic
activity that have remained
stationary for a very long
time.

Hot spots, constructive and destructive plate

boundaries
 Learn about It

Mantle Convection
is affected by three main processes.

● It involves the heating at the bottom caused by the heat loss from
Earth’s core.

● It involves heating due to radioactive decay

● Cooling occurs on the surface creating thick, cold lithospheric slabs

denser than the mantle.
 Learn about It

Layer Cake Whole Mantle

where the mantle is divided into where denser oceanic
two zones of convection lithosphere sinks

Layer cake Whole mantle convection

 Key Points

● Solid-state flow model explains the convection cells in the mantle

circulating heat cause plate motion. Radioactivity causes magma to rise
where it expands to produce the plates above Earth’s surface. The older,
denser plates descend, replacing the hotter material below.
 Key Points

● Hotspots are areas with abnormally high volcanic activity that have
remained stationary for a very long time and contribute to plate motion.

● Mantle plumes are rising columns of hot rocks from the lower mantle
and cause melting as they reach the surface, hence another mechanism
for plate motion.
 Key Points

● Mantle convection is the rising of warm material and sinking of cold

material in the mantle. There are two models of the mantle known as layer
cake model and whole mantle convection.

● The gravity-driven mechanism includes slab pull and ridge push. Slab pull
is the force which causes the oceanic plates to move downward at subduction
zones. Meanwhile, ridge push is the force that causes warm and less dense
material to force itself up through a ridge.
 Bibliography

Allaby, Michael. Dictionary of Geology and Earth Sciences, 8th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
https://app.knovel.com/kn/resources/kpDGESE001/toc.

DOST-PHIVOLCS. “Strategic Plan.” Accessed May 10, 2017.

https://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/index.php/about-us/strategy-map

Dr. Schieber, Jürgen. “Sedimentary Structures”. Accessed May 10, 2017.

https://geol105.sitehost.iu.edu/images/gaia_chapter_5/sedimentary_structures.htm.

Encyclopedia Britannica. “Curie Point”. Last modified July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/science/Curie-point.

Geology.com. “Plate Tectonics and the Hawaiian Hot Spot”. Accessed May 11, 2017.
http://geology.com/usgs/hawaiian-hot-spot/.
 Bibliography

Hefferan, Kevin, and John O’Brien. 2010. Earth Materials. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Levin, Harold L. The Earth Through Time, 8th Edition. Compiled by Pamela Gore. United States of America: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 2006. Last modified March 10, 2006.

Marshak, Stephen. 2009. Essentials of Geology 3rd Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Oxford University Press. “Early Warning System”. Accessed May 10, 2017.
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/early_warning_system.

Prothero, D.R. and R.H. Dott, Jr. Evolution of the Earth 7th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Tarbuck, Edward J., and Frederick J. Lutgens. Earth Science, 11th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2015.