Download Position of the continents

Position of the
continents
Mrs. Snyder
4th grade science
Changes
• Watch the
change in the
position of
the
continents.
• What is
causing these
massive
Look at your map of the
pieces of the
world. Focus on the
Earth’s crust
borders of the continents.
to move?
The Earth: A jigsaw puzzle
• Notice how the
pieces of this
puzzle fit
together
• Look at your map of
the world again, which
continents seem as if
they fit together well?
Watch the movement
happening
under the crust
• Yellow = very hot rock moving from
toward the Earth’s crust
• Blue = cool sections of the crust and
upper mantle sinking down toward the
center of the Earth
Conveyor Belts
Think about the
way a conveyor
belt moves
groceries. This
is a useful
analogy to
describe the
way the crust
moves on top
of the mantle.
Moving continents
• Watch this animation,
and this one.
• Think about how a
“conveyor belt”
driven by convection
could move the
Earth’s plates and
change positions of
the continents.
• Watch this video
(You Tube) to see
the way plates
collide.
• What process
results in one
moving beneath
the other?