Earth Science

Floating peices of rock which are floating on the mantle

The are moved around by convection currents which happen due to thermal hotspots caused by nuclear happenings in the earths crust.

There are two main types: Oceianic and Continental. Continental is not as dense and is generally much thicker than oceianic. Oceanic Is much denser but thinner.

The plates moving in the earths crust cause the plates to collide and this in turn causes earthquakes and tsunamis.

The places where these plates meet are called plate bounderies there are three types: conservative, constructed and destructive.

At a destructive plate boundary two or more plates collide and one is forced under the other into the subduction Zone where it melts. At a conservative two plates move side by side but they may catch and make an earthquake. At a Constructive boundary two plates move apart and liquid magma takes the place of the void.

The earth is made up of four layers:

• The Crust
• The Mantle
• The Core (Which has an outer and inner section)

The crust is mainly made of metal oxides.

THe Mantle is a slightly liquid Mainly solid underlayer.(There are convetion currents here that propel plates)

The Core is made from iron and nickle. The outer part is, counter intuativley, liquid and the inner core is solid. This is because, even though the inner core is hotter, there is an immense amount of preasure on it.