Download Snickers Plate Tectonics

Kara Kelso
Earth Science
July 14, 2010
Plate Tectonics
Materials:
1 snickers bar
1 tooth pick
First step: Set your snickers bar on a flat surface. Take your toothpick and make a few breaks in the
snickers outer covering. This covering plays as the earths crust.
Second step: Pull on the edges of the snickers bar. This illustrates the tension associated with normal
faults(when the plates start moving away from each other). When doing this step you will notice the
plates moving apart revealing the inner caramel/nuts. The caramel and nuts are a mock
asthenosphere(the upper mantle of the earth. It lies right below the lithosphere).
Third step: To show the force of shearing the students then push both ends of the candy bar back
together, then slide one half of the candy bar forward and the other half backwards.
Fourth step: To illustrate compression have the students then push on the ends of the candy bar once
more to squeeze it all together. Students should notice plates colliding and possibly one half sliding over
the top of the other.
Conclusion: What should be understood from this project is down deep in the earth the plates are
always shifting apart and over time colliding back together. When plates meet back up after the normal
and reverse faults happen many things can happen, one being mountain-building as you saw in the
demonstration. More disastrous things can occur though. Such as, earthquakes and volcanos.