How Tectonic Movement Shapes the Earth?

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How Tectonic Movement Shapes the Earth?
Presentation created by Robert L.
Martinez Primary Content Source Geography Alive!
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Scientists solved the mystery of earthquakes in
the 1960s. They discovered that the lithosphere
is broken into huge pieces called tectonic plates.
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Earths lands and seas rest on these plates,
which lie below the surface of the planet. The
plates float like rafts on Earths liquid mantle.
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Tectonic plates move in three ways. They can move
away from each other, they can move toward each
other, or they can scrape sideways past each
other.
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When two tectonic plates collide, one plate
usually slides under the other.
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Tectonic plates are incredibly heavy. When they
meet, friction can lock them into place for long
periods, allowing enormous pressure to build up
below Earths crust.
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We feel this sudden movement as an earthquake.
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When tectonic plates collide head-on, they can
build mountains in two ways.
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The first way is when the pressure of colliding
plates forces Earths crust to fold, or wrinkle,
without breaking.
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The resulting folds form mountains.
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The Appalachian Mountains in the United States
and the Ural Mountains in Russia are examples of
fold mountains.
Team Martinez visiting the Appalachian Mountains
in 2008.
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The second way in which colliding plates create
mountains is when their collision causes the
crust to crack into huge blocks.
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The cracks between the blocks are called faults.
As pressure builds up, the blocks of crust tilt
and tip.
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Then some tilted blocks slide upward along fault
lines to form mountains.
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The Sierra Nevada mountain range in California is
made up of fault-block mountains, as is the West
Sayan range in Russia.
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Russia covers a large part of both Europe and
Asia and includes several mountain ranges.
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These mountain ranges tell the story of how
tectonic movement can shape a landscape.
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The Ural Mountains in western Russia are
considered the dividing line between Europe and
Asia.
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Even though Europe and Asia form one huge
landmass, this division into two continents makes
a good geographic sense.
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The Urals mark the place where two tectonic
plates meet beneath Earths crust.
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Over millions of years, pressure from these two
colliding plates has pushed the crust upward to
create the Urals.
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The Urals slice through Russia from north to
south. This long chain of mountains separates the
Northern European Plain to the west from the West
Siberian Plain to the east.
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The Urals are fold mountains, formed as the two
underlying plates caused Earths crust to
wrinkle.
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In some places, erosion has worn down into
rolling hills.
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Other parts of these mountains still have rugged
peaks.
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Mount Manaraga in the northern Ural Mountains is
sometimes called Bears Paw because of its jagged
ridge.
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The Caucasus Mountains are n southwestern Russia.
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They run west to east on a narrow strip of land
between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,
marking a dividing line between Europe and Asia.
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Like the Urals, the Caucasus Mountains are fold
mountains.
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They also include volcanic formations and
glaciers, which still carve the jagged landscape.
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Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in the Caucuses,
stands at 18,510 feet and is an extinct volcano.
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The West Sayan Mountains are in southern Siberia,
just west of Lake Baikal.
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Around Lake Baikal, major faults separate high
mountains and plateaus from deep valleys and
basins.
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The West Sayan Mountains are fault-block
mountains. In this ranges, erosion has worn away
loose soil and rocks from the peaks.
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This process has left behind steep ridges and
exposed layers of rock on the upper slopes of the
mountains.