Evidence Supporting Crustal Plate Movement Earth Science High School

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Evidence Supporting Crustal Plate MovementEarth
ScienceHigh School
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Teacher Page

• Content Earth Science
• Grade level High School
• Creator Lisa Boulden
• MAP Standard
• Identify evidence of Crustal Plate movement
• Use journal for notes and questions

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Crust of the Earth (Write in your journal)

• How would you define the Earths crust?
• All of the solid Earth
• What are the two types of crust?
• 1. Continental crust
• Where would you find continental crust?
• The majority of the continental crust is found
  above sea level.
• 2. Oceanic Crust
• Where would you find oceanic crust?
• Below sea level.

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Characteristics
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• Plate Tectonics
• What does it mean???

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In your journalBased on the picture of plate
tectonics explain in your own words what you
think has occurred.
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Plate tectonics is...

• slow horizontal movement of the continents over
  thousands of years
• caused by the movement of crustal plates
• resulting in the present continent locations

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Evidence to support plate movement

• List two ideas you would present to support the
  theory of plate movement.
• Volcanic activity
• Earthquakes
• Islands
• Mountains
• The mid ocean ridge
• Past theories such as Pangea
• fossil and climate clues
• rocks
• continental shorelines matching up

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Volcanic Activity
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Supporting Evidence for Volcanic Activity

• Volcanoes occur at diverging plate boundaries and
  convergent plate boundaries
• Diverging plate boundaries the boundary between
  two plates that are spreading apart
• Lava flows up through the crack that develops
  when the plates move apart
• Convergent plate boundaries the boundary between
  two plates that are moving toward each other
• Lava is forced to the surface at the point where
  one plate pushes under the other

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Supporting Evidence Earthquakes

• Rocks break and move along faults
• Fault movement is caused from the constant motion
  of the Earths crust
• This movement puts stress on the rock
• The stress causes rocks to bend, compress, and
  stretch like rubber bands
• Resulting in vibrations within the Earth, known
  as Earthquakes

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Islands
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Supporting evidence for islands

• As a plate begins its descent, a continuous
  series of earthquakes is created
• Magmas are melted and rise toward the surface
• If the upper plate is oceanic, the volcanoes pile
  up until they poke through the surface of the
  ocean and form an elegant arc of islands

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Islands continued

• Eventually these magmas make their way up into
  the leading edge of the overriding plate, where
  they add material to the crust and build
  volcanoes above it

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Mountains
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Supporting evidence for mountains

• When two continents carried on converging plates
  ram into each other, they crumple and fold under
  the enormous pressure, creating great mountain
  ranges

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Mid Ocean Ridges
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Supporting evidence for the mid ocean ridge

• the Mid-Ocean Ridge is a continuous range of
  undersea mountains more than 12,000 feet high and
  1,200 miles wide winding through 40,000 miles of
  the worlds oceans
• two plates are pulling apart from each other as
  hot magma (liquid rock) emerges from the mantle
  and oozes forth as lava to fill the crack
  continuously created by plate separation

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PangeaThe Original Supercontinent
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Supporting evidence for fossil and climate clues

• Fossils of the same fresh water/land reptile
  found in South America and Africa
• The fossil Glossopteris (a fern) was found in
  Africa, Australia, India, South America, and
  Antarectia, a wide variety of climates would
  indicate that they were once similar
• Fossils of warm weather plants were found in
  Greenland, which has a cold climate

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Supporting evidence for rocks

• Similar rock structures are found on different
  continents
• Part of the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern
  United States are similar to those found in
  Greenland and western Europe
• South America and western Africa have rock
  structures that are very similar

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Supporting evidence for continental shorelines
matching up

• parallelism of opposite shores
• Continents appear to fit together like puzzle
  pieces
• Continental shelf matches up better than the
  actual shorelines
• How would you test the theory that the continent
  fit together at one time?

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Putting it all together (in your notes)

• Your job is to use the information you have
  learned about continental drift and the movement
  of crustal plates to persuade a nonbeliever of
  Pangea that at one time our continents were one
  large land mass. You must provide supporting
  evidence to back your persuasion.