Download Landforms - Rankin County School District / Homepage

Do Now
• Google the following with a
partner:
–The 5 largest:
• Volcanoes in the world
• Mountains in the world
• Recorded Earthquakes in the
world
–Also add where they are located
Plate Movement Song/Skit
• Your group will create a song or skit to inform
the class how plates on the earth move
– Include the three types of plate movement and
what landform is created as a result
• Guidelines:
– Song- Must be at least 15-20 lines. Every group
member must present. Turn in song!
– Skit- Must be informational yet entertaining. Every
group member must have a part. CAN NOT HAVE a
Narrator!! Turn in script!
Landforms
Forces below Earth’s Surface
• Geology- the study of Earth’s
physical structures and the
processes that have created them
• Forces below Earth’s surface are key
to shaping landforms
• Four important zones in Earth’s
Interior
– Core-Center: like a nuclear furnace,
divided into inner(solid) and outer
core (dense liquid metal)
– Mantle- Most of Earth’s mass
– Crust- 25 miles thick. Currents carry
heat from core through the mantle to
the crust
Internal Forces
• Plate Tectonics: how forces within Earth
create landforms
– Plates can be compared to the cracked
shell of a hard boiled egg
• Plates move slowly across the upper
mantle: process called continental drift
– Plate boundaries: the crust is subject to
stressing that lead to melting, bending,
and breaking
– Volcanoes often form long rows that
signal a plate boundary
– Earthquakes-Tectonic forces cause masses
of rock to break, very common near plate
boundaries
• Theory of plate tectonics is used to
explain the history of Earth’s surface
– Pangaea- All continents were apart of one
supercontinent
Plate Movement
• Three types of movement at plate boundaries
– Spread, Collide, Move Laterally
• Spreading: crust stretches until it breaks; creating rift
valleys and oceanic ridges
• Collide: Found on ocean floors and continental edges; On
ocean floors colliding creates trenches. On continental
boundaries, colliding creates folds and faults (mountains)
• Move laterally: Move past each other, some low
mountains are created and broad valleys; earthquakes
are frequent
Move Laterally
Forces on Earth’s
surface
• Weathering: Breaking and decaying of rocks
over a period of time; SLOW process
– Chemical- substances in air and water react
with rock- dissolves the rock
– Physical- heating and cooling, freezing and
thawing, roots of trees- breaks or cracks the
surface
• Erosion: Movement of surface material from
one location to another
– Water-Rainfall, rivers, and waves: ExampleGrand Canyon
– Wind- Abrasion-blast particles of sand against
rock, from one place to another (sand dunes)
• Dust from Sahara in Africa goes across the Atlantic
Ocean to the Caribbean Islands
– Ice-Glaciers-can level anything in their path,
grind rocks into sediment
Plates build the land up
while weathering and
erosion wear it down and
make it flat!!
Shapes of the Land
• Landforms are broken up into three groups
– Created by tectonic processes
• Volcanoes and mountains
– Created by erosion
• Plateaus
– Created by sediment deposited by ice, water, and
wind
• Sand Dune