Investigation Questions
What is the land like underneath Earth’s surface? (1.2, 1.3, 1.4)
Earth’s outer layer is made of hard solid rock
How fast or often something happens
Chapter 1 Question: What is the land like where Mesosaurus fossils are found?
They are found on hard solid rock on two different plates; the South American and African plates
Coming together, moving apart
Convergent, divergent
What is earths outer layer made of?
Hard, solid rock
How do Earth’s plates move? (2.1)
Earth’s plates move on top of the mantle, which is soft solid rock
What is the mantle?
soft solid rock
Chapter 2 Question: How did the South American Plate and African Plate move?
The two plates separated (divergent plate boundary). This formed a mid ocean ridge
What is subduction?
When one plate sinks underneath the other into the mantle
What type of fossil was found on the South American and African plate?
Mesosaurus fossil
What happens to the plates and the mantle at plate boundaries? (2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5)
At convergent boundaries (moving towards each other), one plate sinks under the other into the mantle. At divergent boundaries, the plates move apart, and the mantle hardens and attaches to the edges of both plates
What is a plate boundary?
Chapter 3 Question: How did the Mesosaurus fossils on the South American Plate and African Plate get so far apart?
They traveled away from each other (divergent) at a rate too slow for humans to experience. This took place over tens of millions of years. They use the GPS trackers.
Scraping past each other
Transform
What is an earthquake?
A sudden shaking of Earth's surface
What do we know about plate motion that is currently taking place? (3.1)
The plates are moving so slow that humans cannot feel the movement. The gps trackers allow us to measure the movement each year.
What is a cross section?
Allows us to see the inside of something
Unit Question Why are fossils of species that once lived together found in different locations on Earth now?
Plate motion - 200 million years ago, all the continents were together (pangea). Over tens of millions of years, the plates gradually moved and separated (south american and african plates). The fossils that were once together separated due to plate movement.
What forms at a divergent plate boundary?
Mid- ocean ridge
Where is magma found?
Underneath earths surface
What evidence do we have of past plate motion? (3.2, 3.3, 3.4)
The plates move gradually over hundreds of millions of years. It takes a long time for plates to move great distances (pangea, gondwanaland, fossils,landforms)
What is a trench?
a long, deep indentation in the ocean floor formed when two plates move together
What do scientists do to see the layers of Earth?
Take core samples
Where do trenches form?
Convergent plate boundaries : Oceanic/oceanic and Oceanic/continental
What do scientists use to track plate motion, and why?
GPS, because plate motion occurs too slowly for our eyes to see