Material Detail

This website has useful information for both student discovery and teacher preparation for lectures or discussions. The Dynamic Earth website offers seven links to the following topics on Plate Tectonics: 1) The theory of plate tectonics. 2) Historical perspective of plate tectonics (Pangaea). 3) Developing the theory of continental drift, using ocean floor mapping, magnetic striping and polar reversals, seafloor spreading and recycling of oceanic crust, and concentration of earthquakes. 4) Understanding plate tectonics, and how plates move, the rates of movement, and how such movements relate to earthquake activity. Four types of plate boundaries are also discussed on this link: Divergent, convergent, transform, plate boundary zones. 5) Hotspots. 6) Unanswered questions about plate tectonics are discussed, such as: What drives plates? Do other planets in our solar system have plates that move? 7) Plate tectonics and people. Natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis are discussed on this link. As well as, natural resources, such as, fertile soils, ore deposits, fossil fuels, geothermal energy.

Disciplines:

• Science and Technology  / Geoscience  / Geology  / Tectonics