Skip Navigation
Button that takes you to the Dinosaur Floor page.Button that takes you to the Earth Floor page.Button that takes you to the Resource Room page.Button that takes you to the Teacher's Lounge page.Button that takes you to the Elevator page.
     

Image that says Plate Tectonics.

The theory of plate tectonics has done for geology what Charles Darwin's theory of evolution did for biology. It provides geology with a comprehensive theory that explains "how the Earth works." The theory was formulated in the 1960s and 1970s as new information was obtained about the nature of the ocean floor, Earth's ancient magnetism, the distribution of volcanoes and earthquakes, the flow of heat from Earth's interior, and the worldwide distribution of plant and animal fossils.

Image of a graph that displays the Tectonic Plate Boundary Types.  Please have someone assist you with this.

The theory states that Earth's outermost layer, the lithosphere, is broken into 7 large, rigid pieces called plates: the African, North American, South American, Eurasian, Australian, Antarctic, and Pacific plates. Several minor plates also exist, including the Arabian, Nazca, and Philippines plates.

The plates are all moving in different directions and at different speeds (from 2 cm to 10 cm per year--about the speed at which your fingernails grow) in relationship to each other. The plates are moving around like cars in a demolition derby, which means they sometimes crash together, pull apart, or sideswipe each other. The place where the two plates meet is called a plate boundary. Boundaries have different names depending on how the two plates are moving in relationship to each other

With respect to plate boundaries is your home located in the middle of, or near the boundary of a plate? What does this mean for you tectonically?

Next

 

 


Image that says Earth Floor.
Button that takes you to the Diversity page.
Button that takes you to the Adaptation page.
Button that takes you to the Plate Tectonics page.
 Button that takes you to the Cycles page.
Button that takes you to the Spheres page.
Button that takes you to the Biomes page.
Button that takes you to the Geologic Time page.

Image of a star. Plate Tectonics
Convergent Boundaries
Divergent Boundaries
Transform Boundaries
 
             
     
Button that takes you to the Exploring the Environment home page.

Plate Tectonics | Convergent Boundaries | Divergent Boundaries | Transform Boundaries

Diversity | Adaptation | Plate Tectonics | Cycles | Spheres | Biomes | Geologic Time

  Image of a castle that links back to the MSESE home page.  
Button that takes you to the Dinosaur Floor page.Button that takes you to the Earth Floor page.Button that takes you to the Resource Room page.Button that takes you to the Teacher's Lounge page.Button that takes you to the Elevator page.

Site maintained by the ETE Team
Last updated on
April 28, 2005

Some images © 2004 www.clipart.com

Privacy Statement and Copyright © 1997-2004 by Wheeling Jesuit University/NASA-supported Classroom of the Future. All rights reserved.

Center for Educational Technologies, Circuit Board/Apple graphic logo, and COTF Classroom of the Future logo are registered trademarks of Wheeling Jesuit University.