Download Notes on Plates: Sliding, Colliding, and Separating (text pgs. 174-175)

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Notes on Plates: Sliding, Colliding, and Separating (text pgs. 174-175)
Key
Idea/Concept
1) tectonic
plate
2) plate
boundary
3) Types of
plates:
3a) oceanic
Definition in
Words
Plates are cold,
broken pieces of
the lithosphere,
that move on top
of the hot,
taffy-like
asthenosphere.)
The place where
plates meet is
called a “plate
boundary”.
Oceanic plates
are thin, dense
plates under the
earth’s oceans.
Drawing/Diagram
Continental
plates are thick,
less-dense, and
3b) continental contain the
earth’s
continents.
4) Colliding
(convergent)
plates:
4a) two
continental
plates
4b) two
oceanic plates
When two
continental
plates collide,
the boundaries
crumple and lift
up, forming
mountains.
The older,
colder, more
dense oceanic
plate slides
underneath the
younger, warmer
less dense plate
creating a trench
in the ocean
floor. The older
plate sinks into
the hot interior
and “melts”,
allowing magma
to rise up &
create volcanic
islands.
4c) one
oceanic & one
continental
plate
5) Spreading
(divergent)
plates:
5a) oceanic
The more dense
oceanic plate
slides under the
less dense
continental plate,
creating a
trench. The
oceanic plate
sinks into the
asthenosphere
and “melts”,
allowing magma
to rise up into the
continental crust,
creating volcanic
mountains.
Oceanic plate
splits allowing
melted rock from
asthenosphere
to flow upward,
creating a ridge
under water.
Continental plate
splits allowing
melted rock from
5b) continental asthenosphere
to flow upward
creating a ridge
(or rift valley) on
land.
6) Sliding
(transform)
plates
When two plates
slide past each
other, no new
landform results,
but the plates
grind against
each other and
the earth moves,
creating faults
and causing
earthquakes.