Plate Motion
Which statement best describes what Earth’s outer layer is like underneath the surface in the image?
What is
Dr. Raisa and her team of geologists have been studying GPS data that shows that two plates moved apart. Explain what happened between the two plates as they moved away from each other?
Soft, solid rock from underneath the plates rose and hardened, adding solid rock to the edges of both plates.
What is a Divergent Plate Boundary?
Two plates that move apart
What causes Earthquakes?
Plate motion
What are the Mesosaurus?
Ancient fossil remains of a crocodile like reptile.
They are part of two different plate boundaries that moved apart slowly.
What is a convergent plate boundary?
Two plates that move together.
True/False
Underneath both the soil and the ocean, Earth’s outer layer is made of sand and water.
False
What do you call a plate boundary that is moving closer together
Convergent
What is a cross section?
Looking at the side view of a diagram.
GPS
What do you call a plate boundary that is moving apart?
Divergent
What is Earth's outer layer made of?
Hard, Solid Rock
Pangea
What is a Plate
one of the very large sections of hard, solid rock that make up Earth’s outer layer
At what rate do plates move each year on average?
3 cm
A team of geologists wants to study hard, solid rock under the surface of Earth. The team is considering drilling down in Saudi Arabia (on land) or in the Arabian Sea (on water). Where will the geologists find hard, solid rock?
Hard, solid rock
What is a mid-ocean ridge
an underwater mountain range formed when two plates move apart
What is Mantle?
the layer of soft, solid rock underneath Earth's plates
What is a trench?
a long, deep indentation in the ocean floor formed when two plates move together
True/False
Underneath the soil, Earth’s outer layer is made of hard, solid rock. Underneath the ocean, Earth’s outer layer is made of sand.
False
Where would you find volcanic activity?
near a plate boundary
In the past, Africa used to be farther away from Europe than it is now. What could explain why Africa is closer to Europe now than it was before?
Africa and Europe are parts of different plates. The plates slowly moved toward each other as one plate went under the other plate into soft, solid rock over millions of years.
When they were living, all the Lystrosaurus lived together on land, and they could not swim. However, now there is an ocean between the Lystrosaurus fossils. What could explain how these fossils got so far apart?
Divergent plate boundary
Dr. Patel and her team have been using GPS to track two plates that are moving toward each other. Which diagram shows what is happening at the place where the plates are moving toward each other?
One plate is going underneath the other plate and sinking into the soft rock below.