Plate Tectonics

Question 1

What is a plate

Answer 1

Slabs of rock which make up the earths crust

Question 2

Major world plate

Answer 2

Pacific plate
North American plate
South American plate
Nazca plate
Eurasian plate
Indian plate
Indo - Australian plate
Antarctic plate

Question 3

Continental drift

Answer 3

The idea that plates are moving closer/further away from each other.

Question 4

Pangea

Answer 4

A large super continent when all the plates were together

Question 5

Sea floor spreading

Answer 5

When the earths tectonic plates split apart allowing new crust to from

Question 6

3 types of plate boundaries

Answer 6

Destructive - where two plates collide (convergent plate boundary)
Constructive - when two plates pull apart ( divergent plate boundary)
Transform - when two plates,ages slide past each other. ( passive plate boundary)

Question 7

Explain a destructive plate boundary

Answer 7

At some plate boundaries, the crust is destroyed.
This is called a destructive boundary.
Two plates with land on them collide (crash together) the crust crumbles upwards, making fold mountains and earthquakes example Himalayas
If an oceanic plate, collide with a continental plate. The oceanic plate is dragged downwards into the mantle where it melts and is recycled into mantle. This is called subduction.

Question 8

Explain a constructive plate boundary

Answer 8

When two plates separate pull apart, magma comes to the surface to fill the gap.
The lava cools and hardens into basalt rock, a new crust is formed, which is why these places are called construction plate boundaries.
This usually happens on ocean floors, making a line of under sea volcanic mountains example the mid Atlantic Ridge.
Here the North American nation plates pull apart a magma comes to the surface to form Iceland. When new crust is formed under the sea, we call it seafloor spreading.