Tectonic Plates and Fold Mountains

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  • At the Earth's centre there is a ball of solid iron and nickel
    • This is called the Core
  • Surrounding the core is the mantle
    • This is a semi-molten rock that moves very slowly
  • The outer layer of the Earth is the crust
    • It is very thin - approximately 20 km thick
  • The crust is divided into many slabs called tectonic plates which 'float' on the mantle
    • Plates are made of two different types of crust - continental and oceanic
      • Continental crust is thicker and less dense
      • Oceanic crust is thinner and more dense
  • The plates are moving because the rock in the mantle beneath them is moving
  • The places where the plates meet are called plate boundaries or margins
  • There are three types of plate margin:
    • Destructive Margins - where an oceanic plate meets a continental plate, the denser oceanic plate is forced down into the…

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