What Are Two Of The Processes That Move Tectonic Plates Over The Surface Of The Earth

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What Are Two Of The Processes That Move Tectonic Plates Over The Surface Of The Earth?

Divergent boundary: Two plates move away from each other. Transform boundary: Plates slide past each other along such type of boundary.

What natural process moves tectonic plates over the surface of Earth?

Plates at our planet’s surface move because of the intense heat in the Earth’s core that causes molten rock in the mantle layer to move. It moves in a pattern called a convection cell that forms when warm material rises cools and eventually sink down. As the cooled material sinks down it is warmed and rises again.

What are two essential processes of plate tectonics?

The essential processes of plate tectonics are 1)seafloor spreading and 2) subduction. These two processes operate on basic units called plates.

What are the 3 causes of tectonic plate movement?

The flow of the mantle causes tectonic plates to move in different directions. When the edges of plates meet four things can happen:
  • slip. play. two plates slide. past each other.
  • collision. play. two plates crash. and fold up.
  • spreading. play. two plates move apart. from each other.
  • subduction. play. one plate sinks. below the other.

What process moves tectonic plates?

Tectonic shift is the movement of the plates that make up Earth’s crust. … The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion or tectonic shift.

What is the process of plate tectonics?

The theory of plate tectonics states that the Earth’s solid outer crust the lithosphere is separated into plates that move over the asthenosphere the molten upper portion of the mantle. Oceanic and continental plates come together spread apart and interact at boundaries all over the planet.

What are tectonic processes and what fuels them?

The motion of tectonic plates and the slow convective motion of rock inside the Earth are driven by the same sources of energy within the Earth. These sources of energy include heat trapped inside the Earth long ago and energy released by ongoing radioactive decay.

What are the two causes of plate movement?

The force that causes most of the plate movement is thermal convection where heat from the Earth’s interior causes currents of hot rising magma and cooler sinking magma to flow moving the plates of the crust along with them. … In ridge push and slab pull gravity is acting on the plate to cause the movement.

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What are the two major causes of the movement of the tectonic plates?

Geologists have hypothesized that the movement of tectonic plates is related to convection currents in the earth’s mantle. … Tremendous heat and pressure within the earth cause the hot magma to flow in convection currents. These currents cause the movement of the tectonic plates that make up the earth’s crust.

What causes the tectonic plates to move quizlet?

convection currents are a process in which the materials inside the mantle heat up and rise to the surface whilst the cooler liquid sinks as it sinks it then heats up and rises again. This continuous cycle is established: hot liquid rising cold liquid descending. These currents cause the tectonic plates to move.

What are the three tectonic processes?

The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent where plates move into one another divergent where plates move apart and transform where plates move sideways in relation to each other.

How does plate motion affect the surface of the earth?

Plate motions cause mountains to rise where plates push together or converge and continents to fracture and oceans to form where plates pull apart or diverge. The continents are embedded in the plates and drift passively with them which over millions of years results in significant changes in Earth’s geography.

What happens when Earth’s plates move?

When the plates move they collide or spread apart allowing the very hot molten material called lava to escape from the mantle. When collisions occur they produce mountains deep underwater valleys called trenches and volcanoes. … The Earth is producing “new” crust where two plates are diverging or spreading apart.

What are the 4 types of tectonic plate movement?

What are the major plate tectonic boundaries?
  • Divergent: extensional the plates move apart. Spreading ridges basin-range.
  • Convergent: compressional plates move toward each other. Includes: Subduction zones and mountain building.
  • Transform: shearing plates slide past each other. Strike-slip motion.

What drives the process of plate tectonics the currently accepted explanation for the movement?

Convection in the molten rock of Earth’s mantle drives the movement of the plates. Hotter material rises to the surface while cooler material sinks toward the core. This creates pushing and spreading apart at mid-ocean ridges and subduction (sinking) of one plate under another at subduction zones.

What is under tectonic plates?

These plates make up the top layer of the Earth called the lithosphere. Directly under that layer is the asthenosphere. It’s a flowing area of molten rock. … The tectonic plates are floating on top of the molten rock and moving around the planet.

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What process occurs along convergent plate boundary?

If two tectonic plates collide they form a convergent plate boundary. Usually one of the converging plates will move beneath the other a process known as subduction. … The new magma (molten rock) rises and may erupt violently to form volcanoes often building arcs of islands along the convergent boundary.

Which of the following explains why tectonic plates move?

The main driving force of plate tectonics is gravity. If a plate with oceanic lithosphere meets another plate the dense oceanic lithosphere dives beneath the other plate and sinks into the mantle. … The sinking oceanic lithosphere drags the rest of the tectonic plate and this is the main cause of plate motion.

What force causes most of the plate movement?

Research has shown that the major driving force for most plate movement is slab pull because the plates with more of their edges being subducted are the faster-moving ones. However ridge push is also presented in recent research to be a force that drives the movement of plates.

What are the 3 causes of plate movement quizlet?

Convection occurs in the mantle underneath Earth’s tectonic plates. Three forces act on the plates to make them move: basal drag from convection currents ridge push at mid-ocean ridges and slab pull from subducting plates. Convection currents in the mantle produce a force that causes motion called basal drag.

What causes tectonic plates to move GCSE?

Plates are extremely heavy so gravity acts upon them pulling them apart. Alternatively as shown in the diagram convection currents under the Earth’s crust transfer heat which rises through the surface and cools back down in a circular motion. The convection currents move the plates.

What is tectonic forces and processes?

Tectonic processes mostly take place at the plate edges. A plate moves as a single entity along the surface of the Earth over a plastic mantle. … Oceanic plates form at the mid-ocean ridges. They thicken as they move away (at about 1 km for every million years) and have a basaltic composition.

What type of plate boundary formed If two plates move in different directions?

When oceanic or continental plates slide past each other in opposite directions or move in the same direction but at different speeds a transform fault boundary is formed. No new crust is created or subducted and no volcanoes form but earthquakes occur along the fault.

How do geological processes change Earth’s surface?

Wind water and ice erode and shape the land. Volcanic activity and earthquakes alter the landscape in a dramatic and often violent manner. And on a much longer timescale the movement of earth’s plates slowly reconfigures oceans and continents. Each one of these processes plays a role in the Arctic and Antarctica.

What is released when tectonic plates move in what form?

Volcanoes

When Earth’s tectonic plates grind past one another enormous amounts of energy can be released in the form of earthquakes. Volcanoes are also often found near plate boundaries because molten rock from deep within Earth—called magma—can travel upward at these intersections between plates.

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What are the types of tectonic plates?

how many tectonic plates are there? There are major minor and micro tectonic plates. There are seven major plates: African Antarctic Eurasian Indo-Australian North American Pacific and South American.

What is the force or process that drives plate movement?

The motion of tectonic plates is driven by convection in the mantle. In simple terms convection is the idea that dense cold things sink and buoyant warm things rise.

Which layer supports the movement of the plates on top of it?

These plates lie on top of a partially molten layer of rock called the asthenosphere. Due to the convection of the asthenosphere and lithosphere the plates move relative to each other at different rates from two to 15 centimeters (one to six inches) per year.

What geologic processes takes place with the convergence of two oceanic plates?

Oceanic-oceanic convergence

Subduction processes in oceanic-oceanic plate convergence also result in the formation of volcanoes. Over millions of years the erupted lava and volcanic debris pile up on the ocean floor until a submarine volcano rises above sea level to form an island volcano.

What happens when two continental plates converge?

What happens when two continental plates collide? … Instead a collision between two continental plates crunches and folds the rock at the boundary lifting it up and leading to the formation of mountains and mountain ranges.

What happens when two continental plates meet at a convergent boundary According to plate tectonics?

What happens when two continental plates meet at a convergent boundary according to plate tectonics? They push against each other to form deep-ocean trenches. They push against each other to form folded mountain ranges. … As any two plates meet at a fault line boundary mountains are formed.

What causes tectonic plates to move Quizizz?

Hot magma rises through the boundaries at the mid-ocean ranges creating new rock as it cools and pushing the plates apart. The strength of the Earth’s magnetic field is so strong it affects the iron filled rocks at mid-ocean ranges pushing them apart causing the movement in the sea floor. Q.

Which process is best explained by the theory of plate tectonics?

Which process is best explained by the Theory of Plate Tectonics? … Tectonics plates divide the earth’s outer layer (lithosphere). Under the lithosphere is the asthenosphere where the differences in temperature and pressure cause the plates to move.

What causes earthquakes tectonic plates?

The tectonic plates are always slowly moving but they get stuck at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction there is an earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel.

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