Plate tectonics year 9

Question 1

What is the Earth made out of in the correct order?

Answer 1

Crust
Mantle
Outer core
Inner core

Question 2

What layer of the Earth is the thinnest?

Answer 2

The thinnest layer of the Earth?

Question 3

How thick is the crust?

Answer 3

The crust is between 8km and 40km thick.

Question 4

Compare the Earth’s radius to just the crust

Answer 4

In comparison to the whole Earths radius ,the crust is very thin, like an egg shell.

Question 5

Where is the crust thinner?

Answer 5

The crust is thinner under the oceans than it is on land.

Question 6

What does the crust contain?

Answer 6

It contains rocks and minerals.

Question 7

Whta does the Earth’s crust contain under the oceans?

Answer 7

Under the oceans, the crust is mainly basalt but under the continents it’s mainly granite.

Question 8

What is the thickest layer of the Earth?

Answer 8

The Mantle is the thickest layer of the Earth.

Question 9

What is the mantle made of?

Answer 9

The mantle is made of solid rock that can flow - plastic rock.

Question 10

What causes the plastic rock to move in slow, big circles?

Answer 10

The plastic rock moves in slow, big circles caused by Convection Currents.

Question 11

What happens to the magma closest to the inner core?

Answer 11

As the magma closest to the inner is heated (5000°C) it rises and then cools because the temperature is cooler near the crust(1000°C), causing movements.

Question 12

What do the movements cause from the cooling and rising of temperatures?

Answer 12

Near the inner core the magma is around 5000°C whereas near the crust it cools to about 1000°C, causing movements - this is crucial to the formation of earthquakes volcanoes and tsunamis.

Question 13

What layer of the Earth is semi liquid iron?

Answer 13

The Outer Core is semi liquid iron.

Question 14

How hot is the Outer Core?

Answer 14

The Outer Core has temperature of about 5300°C.

Question 15

How thick is the Outer Core?

Answer 15

The Outer Core is 2200km thick.

Question 16

What does iron have to do with us living on the planet?

Answer 16

The fact that the iron is liquid here and iron is magnetic means that the Earth’s magnetic field is formed here which protects us from harmful solar winds and allows life on our planet.

Question 17

What is the inner most part of the Earth?

Answer 17

The Inner Core is the inner most part of the Earth.

Question 18

How thick is the Inner Core?

Answer 18

The Inner Core is 1200km thick.

Question 19

Which layer of the Earth is the hottest?

Answer 19

The Inner Core is the hottest layer of the Earth - temperatures reach over 5500°C

Question 20

Why is the Inner Core under lots of pressure?

Answer 20

Mainly made of iron and nickel - the material is under lots of pressure.

Question 21

Is the material thin?

Answer 21

The material is not thin, it is very dense(4x more pressure than at the crust.

Question 22

What causes the rock to be solid in the Inner Core?

Answer 22

The rock is solid in the Inner Core due to the pressure.

Question 23

What is the German Geologists name who thought that the continents were all joined together?

Answer 23

The german geologists name was Mr. Wegener who had a theory that 100s of millions of years ago the continents were all connected and he called this Pangea.

Question 24

What is a plate boundary?

Answer 24

A plate boundary is where two very large crustal plates meet on the earth’s surface. Earthquakes and volcanoes happen here.

Question 25

What is a destructive plate boundary?

Answer 25

A destructive plate boundary is where two plates are moving towards each other, one of which is continental crust and one is made of oceanic crust.

Question 26

What is continental crust?

Answer 26

Continental crust is a plate that is made up of less dense rock. Because it is less dense it doesn’t sink. It is exceptionally old and makes up our land surfaces.

Question 27

What is oceanic crust?

Answer 27

A plate that is made up of more dense rock. It sinks easily due to its density and is constantly created at boundaries. It is young/new rock and forms our ocean bed.

Question 28

What is a subduction zone?

Answer 28

A subduction zone is where one plate is forced downwards below another plate and grinds past it causing huge amounts of friction and heat.

Question 29

What is an ocean trench?

Answer 29

An ocean trench is particularly deep part of the ocean bed where the oceanic and continental crust have dragged each other downwards.

Question 30

What are fold mountains?

Answer 30

Fold mountains are mountain ranges formed by the collision and ‘folding’ of two plates as the plates continually push into one another.

Question 31

What is pyroclastic flow?

Answer 31

Pyroclastic flow is a superheated mass of rock, ash, gas and dust which moves at over 450 mph at a temperature of about 1,000°C.

Question 32

What is a composite volcano?

Answer 32

A composite volcano is a very steep volcano which is formed at a destructive boundary. The magma under the surface has high silica and is very explosive - these are the most dangerous volcanoes.