Plate Tectonics

Plate Tectonicsby: Skyler Isch

What is Pangaea?

Pangaea was a theory that was created by Alfred

Wegener, that all of the continents were once combined into a super

continent which he called, “Pangaea”. Originally

scientists dismissed his theory because he

couldn’t explain how the continents would move, or

drift, from their original location.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/techist.html

PangaeaThe name “Pangaea” literally means “entire

Earth” from the Greek roots pan- meaning entire and Gaea- meaning Earth. It is believed that Pangaea was intact until the late Carboniferous period which was about 300 million years ago. Before Wegener's idea of Pangaea the only other theory of continental placement is that the continents never moved, but throughout time, land bridges have formed and disappeared, allowing animals to move across to other continents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/techist.html

Alfred WegenerAlfred Wegener was born on November 1, 1880 in Berlin. He earned his PhD In astronomy at the University of Berlin in 1904. During his life he made several contributions to meteorology. Another major

thing that he had done during his life was write a book that eventually became a standard in Germany. He died a few days after celebrating his 50th birthday.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html

http://www.berkeley.edu./history/wegener.html

Arthur Holmes

Arthur Holmes was a man that elaborated and did more research on one of Alfred Wegener's many hypotheses. This hypothesis was that the mantel undergoes thermal convection. With thermal convection, when something heats up towards the bottom of something it rises until it cools down and sinks until it is heated up again. A great example of this is a lava lamp. These ideas related to Wegener's findings because that was exactly what he was trying to prove to show that his “super continent” idea was in fact, correct.

A convergent boundary is when two plates ,that are going in opposite directions meet and one plate is forced under the other one. A convergent boundary is usually characterized by hazardous characteristics such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and sometimes even mountains or deep

ocean trenches. Mountains are a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land. Earthquakes are the result of a sudden release of energy that creates a seismic wave. Earthquakes can also cause tsunamis and landslides. A landslide is portions of land come lose and gravity carries it down hills with disastrous effects. Along with landslides, if the groundis wet enough it can also cause a mudslide. Amudslide is the same as a landslide except the land is wet, andthe mud moves much Faster.

http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate4.htm

http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/geology/a_geohazards.html

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_t

ectonics.html http://en.wikipedia.org

Convergent boundaries

Real life examplesA real life example of a convergent

boundary involves the Juan de Fuca plate and the North America plate. The Juan de Fuca plate is slowly moving underneath the North America plate.

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/

description_plate_tectonics.html

Divergent boundaries

A divergent boundary is when two plates that are next to each other slowly pull apart. The pulling apart of these plates causes “”sea-floor spreading”. Some of the hazards involved with these boundaries is that there are earthquakes, and volcanoes because of the magma that is rising upward. A volcano is an opening in the earth`s crust that

releases hot magma or volcanic ash.


description_plate_tectonics.html http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate4.htm

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html

More real life examples

A real life example of a divergent boundary involves the African plate and the Arabian plate. Saudi Arabia (located on the Arabian plate) is slowly moving away from Africa (located on the Africa plate). Between the two plates is the Red Sea which has formed since the two plates have moved farther and farther away.

TRANSFORM BOUNDARYA transform boundary is when one

plate slides horizontally past another one. Plates are the boundaries into which the lithosphere is broken up into. One of the best known examples is the San Andres fault. It is the border between the North American plates and the Pacific plates. Some of the most common hazards of a transform boundary are earthquakes. Tsunamis and landslides can also be caused by earthquakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html

http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate4.htm

Real world connectionsIf you live in the US then you probably know

that we live on the North America plate. Anther thing you probably know is that there are many plates surrounding us. Some of the are Juan de Fuca plate to the west, the Pacific plate to the southwest, the Cocos and Caribbean plate to the south, the South America plate to the southeast, the African and Eurasian plate to the east, and finally the Antarctic plate to the north.

Is the united states in any hazards from plate tectonics? Actually the only place that is in any danger from plate tectonics is probably California because of San Andres fault. San Andres fault is a very large transform boundary between the Pacific plate and the North America plate.


description_plate_tectonics.html

More real world connections

The FutureThere are a lot of great things in store for the

future of this world. Maybe someone will invent a car that runs of water, maybe someone will invent a cure for cancer. No one knows for sure. Although one thing that I do predict is that all of the continents will be joined again and ultimately, create another Pangaea. If this were to happen it wouldn’t happen for a very long time, it would take millions of years for the continents to rejoin.

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Plate Tectonics