Plate Tectonics Movement
The Movement of Plate Tectonics
Brandon Womac
Plate tectonics have played a major role in the history of the Earth. All seven continents are where they are today due to the movement of plate tectonics. These seven continents were one big supercontinent called “Pangea” about 200 million years ago before breaking apart. The three different types of plate boundaries are convergent, divergent, and transform. These plate boundaries form due to the earth’s outer shell called the lithosphere having multiple plates moving around each other within the earth’s surface, allowing them to collide, separate, or slide past each other.
A convergent plate boundary is also known as a destructive plate boundary since two plates are colliding with each other. …show more content…
Alfred Wegner is most associated with continental drift stating that the continental landmasses were drifting apart from each other across the earth and colliding into each other. Wegner came to this conclusion with the evidence that the continents fit together, glacial till deposits, and the shifting of climatic belts over time. Some of Wegner’s colleagues thought polar wandering caused this. It was not until the 1950’s that paleomagnetism, convention currents, and seafloor spreading were added onto these ideas. The world once believed that continental drift was the reason for the positioning of continents and later realized that they were wrong. So what makes the theory of plate tectonics a hundred percent fact? It is just the best hypothesis that we have figured out so far. Not saying it is wrong, but possibly in the future we might be able to produce a better hypothesis with newer technology.
All oceanic and continental plates move within the lithosphere, which is the outermost shell of the planet. The lithosphere has more strength than the underlying asthenosphere allowing the tectonic plates to move. Seafloor motion away from the spreading ridge and drag at the subduction zones is a theory for plate movement. The tidal forces of the sun and moon and the forces generated by the rotation of the globe is another idea for plate movement. There are other hypotheses on plate movement but these are the two main scientific theories. The relative importance of these factors are unclear and still on
Brandon Womac
Plate tectonics have played a major role in the history of the Earth. All seven continents are where they are today due to the movement of plate tectonics. These seven continents were one big supercontinent called “Pangea” about 200 million years ago before breaking apart. The three different types of plate boundaries are convergent, divergent, and transform. These plate boundaries form due to the earth’s outer shell called the lithosphere having multiple plates moving around each other within the earth’s surface, allowing them to collide, separate, or slide past each other.
A convergent plate boundary is also known as a destructive plate boundary since two plates are colliding with each other. …show more content…
Alfred Wegner is most associated with continental drift stating that the continental landmasses were drifting apart from each other across the earth and colliding into each other. Wegner came to this conclusion with the evidence that the continents fit together, glacial till deposits, and the shifting of climatic belts over time. Some of Wegner’s colleagues thought polar wandering caused this. It was not until the 1950’s that paleomagnetism, convention currents, and seafloor spreading were added onto these ideas. The world once believed that continental drift was the reason for the positioning of continents and later realized that they were wrong. So what makes the theory of plate tectonics a hundred percent fact? It is just the best hypothesis that we have figured out so far. Not saying it is wrong, but possibly in the future we might be able to produce a better hypothesis with newer technology.
All oceanic and continental plates move within the lithosphere, which is the outermost shell of the planet. The lithosphere has more strength than the underlying asthenosphere allowing the tectonic plates to move. Seafloor motion away from the spreading ridge and drag at the subduction zones is a theory for plate movement. The tidal forces of the sun and moon and the forces generated by the rotation of the globe is another idea for plate movement. There are other hypotheses on plate movement but these are the two main scientific theories. The relative importance of these factors are unclear and still on