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Convection is like a boiling pot. Heated soup rises to the surface, spreads and begins to
cool, and then sinks back to the bottom of the pot where it is reheated and rises again.
What are the tectonic plates?
Asthenosphere:
• Is the hotter upper mantle below the lithospheric
plate;
• Can flow like silly putty; and
• Is a viscoelastic solid, NOT liquid!!
Three Basic Types of Plate Boundaries
Divergent Using hands to show relative motion
Transform
Convergent
USGS Graphics
Three Basic Types of Plate Boundaries
Divergent
Transform
Convergent
USGS Graphics
Tectonic Plates
There are a dozen large lithospheric plates (smaller plates not shown).
Some plates have continents; some don’t. All are in motion.
Source: http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/animations/index.html
Seafloor Spreading
Source: http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/animations/index.html
Collision of ‘Drifting’ India with Eurasia
Source: http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/animations/index.html
Note on Source: First 8 slides are modified from a slide show prepared by Dr.
Robert Butler, University of Portland, and Jenda Johnson,
…the full source of which can be found at:
http://www.iris.edu/hq/programs/education_and_outreach/videos#B