PLATE TECTONIC REVIEW
Google Classroom Questions & Test Review
Below are questions you should be able to answer for our upcoming test on Plate Tectonics and things that result from tectonic plate movement. These are included in your Google Classroom assignment.
Below are questions you should be able to answer for our upcoming test on Plate Tectonics and things that result from tectonic plate movement. These are included in your Google Classroom assignment.
- Explain what causes continental drift. In your explanation you should talk about what tectonic plates are and what causes them to move.
- List the 3 MAIN types of tectonic plate movement and draw arrows to show the direction of the movement.
- What is a ridge and what is a rift? How are they the same and how are they different?
- Which MAIN type of tectonic plate movement is subdivided into 2 types and what are these 2 subtypes?
- What is the reason that some plates collide and some plates subduct?
- What is a destructive plate boundary and what is a constructive plate boundary? Why are they called this?
- At which plate boundaries do volcanoes occur and where do they NOT occur? At which plate boundaries do earthquakes occur?
- What is the "Ring of Fire", where does it occur, and why is it called the Ring of Fire?
- What is a "hotspot?" Explain fully how island chains may be formed over hotspots?
VI. Plate Tectonics
A. The lithosphere (the crust + the uppermost part of the mantle) is broken into large pieces called tectonic plates. 1. There are 12 major tectonic plates 2. Oceanic plates are made of oceanic crust and underlying rocky mantle Ex. Pacific Plate 3. Continental plates are made of continental and oceanic crust and underlying rocky mantle Ex. North American plate includes North American continent and part of Atlantic Ocean crust |
B. Tectonic plates move or "float" on top of more dense asthenosphere.
1. Moving tectonic plates cause the continents to slowly move over time a. Called continental drift
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Continental Drift
If we look at the continents during the present day, they appear like jigsaw puzzle pieces. In particular, you can see how South America looks like it could fit into Western Africa. Scientists used this and other data to go back in time and see how the continents were once part of a supercontinent, Pangaea, that broke apart due to tectonic plate movement. That movement continues to cause continents to drift.
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