hypothesis you made about tectonic plates

A cross section of Earth's outer layers, from the crust through the lower mantle. In essence, plate-tectonic theory is elegantly simple. Earth 's surface layer, 50 to 100 km (30 to 60 miles) thick, is rigid and is composed of a set of large and small plates. Together, these plates constitute the lithosphere, from the Greek lithos, meaning ...

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth's subterranean movements. The theory, which solidified in the 1960s, transformed the earth sciences by explaining many phenomena, including mountain building events, volcanoes, and earthquakes. In plate tectonics, Earth's outermost layer, or lithosphere —made up of the crust and ...

Development of Plate Tectonic Theory. Wegener died in 1930 on an expedition in Greenland. Poorly respected in his lifetime, Wegener and his ideas about moving continents seemed destined to be lost in history as fringe science. However, in the 1950s, evidence started trickling, making continental drift a more viable idea.

Kevin Schafer/Alamy Stock Photo. Plate tectonics describes how Earth's entire, 100-kilometer-thick outermost layer, called the lithosphere, is broken into a jigsaw puzzle of plates — slabs of ...

Plates move apart at mid-ocean ridges where new seafloor forms. Between the two plates is a rift valley. Lava flows at the surface cool rapidly to become basalt, but deeper in the crust, magma cools more slowly to form gabbro. So the entire ridge system is made up of igneous rock that is either extrusive or intrusive.

For example, take the Great Rift Valley in Africa. The African, Arabian, and Indian plates are moving. The land of Africa east of the Great Rift Valley is separating from the rest of Africa. Eventually (a few million years), a new plate will be created, being the land that has separated. ( 8 votes)

Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') is the scientific theory that Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since about 3.4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century.

A single plate can be made of all oceanic lithosphere or all continental lithosphere, but nearly all plates are made of a combination of both. Movement of the plates over Earth's surface is termed plate tectonics. Plates move at a rate of a few centimeters a year, about the same rate fingernails grow. HOW PLATES MOVE.

Plate boundaries can be located by outlining earthquake epicenters. Plates interact at three types of plate boundaries: divergent, convergent and transform. Most of the Earth's geologic activity takes place at plate boundaries. At a divergent boundary, volcanic activity produces a mid ocean ridge and small earthquakes.

Abstract. The theory of plate tectonics is widely accepted by scientists and provides a robust framework with which to describe and predict the behavior of Earth's rigid outer shell - the lithosphere - in space and time. Expressions of plate tectonic interactions at the Earth's surface also provide critical insight into the machinations ...

Wegener coined the term Pangaea ("all land") for the supercontinent from which all of the present-day continents diverged. Figure 4.1.2 Distribution of similar fossils across the continents, suggesting they were once connected into a single supercontinent (Steven Earle, "Physical Geology"). Wegener pursued his theory with determination ...

Introduction. Plate tectonics has revolutionized the way we view large features on the surface of the Earth. Earth's internal processes were previously thought to operate in a vertical fashion, with continents, oceans, and mountain ranges bobbing up and down, without much sideways movement. But the acceptance of continental drift and other ...

Introduction to plate tectonics. Earth's lithosphere is broken up into tectonic plates, which move slowly over time. Evidence like matching coastlines and same-species fossils on different continents support this. A plate boundary is where two tectonic plates meet. There are three types of plate boundaries: convergent, divergent, and transform.

Many earth processes make more sense when viewed through the lens of plate tectonics. Because it is so important in understanding how the world works, plate tectonics is the first topic of discussion in this textbook. 2.1 Alfred Wegener's Continental Drift Hypothesis Figure 2.2: Wegener later in his life, ca. 1924-1930.

Plate Tectonics Hypothesis. Earth's crust is broken into about 12 rigid plates! Plates move ~ cm/year ! 3 types of plate boundaries:! !divergent ! !!creation of new seafloor! !convergent! !!return of crust to Earth's interior! !transverse! Plate Tectonics Hypothesis! Spreading!

Plate Tectonics. The Earth's surface may seem motionless most of the time, but it's actually always moving, ever so slowly, at a scale that is difficult for humans to perceive. The Earth's crust is broken up into a series of massive sections called plates. These tectonic plates rest upon the convecting mantle, which causes them to move.

Students will interpret the evidence to formulate a hypothesis. Students will defend their position on continental drift. Lesson 2: Plate Tectonics Tennis Ball Globe. Students will examine one method for creating a two-dimensional map of a spherical surface. Students will create a model of the earth that they can hold and examine.

The Vine-Matthews-Morley hypothesis, also known as the Morley-Vine-Matthews hypothesis, was the first key scientific test of the seafloor spreading theory of continental drift and plate tectonics. Its key impact was that it allowed the rates of plate motions at mid-ocean ridges to be computed.

Updated on January 22, 2020. Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that attempts to explain the movements of the Earth's lithosphere that have formed the landscape features we see across the globe today. By definition, the word "plate" in geologic terms means a large slab of solid rock. "Tectonics" is a part of the Greek root for "to build ...

Plate tectonics refers to the process of plate formation, movement, and destruction. It finds its foundations in two theories, continental drift and sea-floor spreading. Continental drift describes the movements of continents over the Earth's surface. Sea-floor spreading refers to the creation new oceanic plate material and movement away from ...

Alfred Wegener in Greenland. Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's land masses are in constant motion. The realization that Earth's land masses move was first proposed by Alfred Wegener, which he called continental drift. He is shown here in Greenland. We don't perceive that the continents we live on are moving.

Plates of lithosphere move because of convection currents in the mantle. One type of motion is produced by seafloor spreading. Plate boundaries can be located by outlining earthquake epicenters. Plates interact at three types of plate boundaries: divergent, convergent and transform. Most of the Earth's geologic activity takes place at plate ...

Continental drift is the hypothesis, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The hypothesis of continental drift has since been validated and incorporated into the science of plate tectonics, which studies the movement of the continents as they ride on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.

Reports from the scientists helped to confirm the hypothesis of continental drift and later to develop the concepts now known as plate tectonics. In 1984, DSDP was folded into the international Ocean Drilling Program, which continues today. Figure 1. The Glomar Challenger operated from 1968-1983 during the Deep Sea Drilling Project.

The name of the scientist that dealt with sea-floor spreading., This is where molten material erupts from in sea-floor spreading., The sun warming Earth's surface is an example of this type of heat transfer., This theory explains the formation, movement, and subduction of Earth's plates.

For plate tectonics, the scientists used data showing that only about 33% of planets have the right chemicals to form sufficiently dense tectonic plates needed for plate tectonics.

Before we learnt about plate tectonics, this hypothesis made sense of the corresponding natural features of Africa, Australia and the Indian subcontinent. In his letter, Gordon employs some creative and tortuous logic to connect the underwater clefts at the seabed, one of which runs in the direction of the Seychelles, with the four rivers ...

For more than a decade, the CheMin X-ray diffraction instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, has been returning definitive and quantitative mineralogical and mineral-chemistry data from ~3.5-billion-year-old (Ga) sediments in Gale crater, Mars. To date, 40 drilled rock samples and three scooped soil samples have been analyzed during the rover's 30+ km transit. These ...