Plate tectonics is a relatively new theory that has revolutionized the way geologists think about the Earth. According to the theory, the surface of the Earth is broken into large plates. The size and position of these plates change over time. The edges of these plates, where they move against each other, are sites of intense geologic activity, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building. Plate tectonics is a combination of two earlier ideas, continental drift and sea-floor spreading. Continental drift is the movement of continents over the Earth's surface and in their change in position relative to each other. Sea-floor spreading is the creation of new oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges and movement of the crust away from the mid-ocean ridges.
2006-08-14 18:56:20
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answer #1
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answered by cats&dogs 2
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First proposed as "continental drift" by James Wegener around 1912. Wegener, a geographer, noticed that Africa and South America fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and he found other landmasses that seemed to fit also.
Then he found other evidence -- mountain ranges on one continent that seemed to match up with mountain ranges on another, and so on.
People laughed at Wegener because he could give no explanation how continents could move.
A half-century later, the evidence began to show up. Scientists found that new ocean floor crust was welling up along a mid-Atlantic Ridge, making the Atlantic Ocean get wider, pushing Europe/Africa farther away from North and South America.
On the other side of the world, they found deep ocean trenches off the Pacific coasts of South America, the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia where oceanic crust was being driven downward, effectively making the Pacific Ocean narrower, and driving Asia toward America.
In addition, they found that basaltic oceanic crust is relatively young everywhere. The oldest crust is about 200 million years old, while the less dense granitic continental crust is much older -- often billions of years old -- except, of course, for volcanic rock, which is younger.
They found sea fossils near the top of the Himalayas.
Around 1970, I think, someone came up with the theory of plate tectonics to explain Wegener's continental drift idea.
Plate tectonics says that the lithosphere -- essentially the earth's crust -- is sitting atop a gigantic heat engine -- the earth's interior. The earth's mantle -- the part below the crust -- acts like simmering pudding in a pot. Hot material rises and cooler material sinks, creating huge circular thermal convection cells. The material circulates very slowly, and the "plates" of the lithosphere ride on top of these, moving around very slowly.
Some of these plates drift apart (divergent), others smash together (convergent), others ride one up and the other down (subduction), and others slide past one another (like California is sliding north).
This theory explains why volcanos are where they are (the Ring of Fire); why the big mountain ranges of the world are where they are (Himalaya, Alps, Andes); and why the continents are shaped as they are.
There's a lot more, but I've written enough.
2006-08-14 20:34:43
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answer #2
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answered by bpiguy 7
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Plate tectonics (from Greek τέκτων, tektōn "builder" or "mason") is a theory of geology developed to explain the observed evidence for large scale motions within the Earth's crust. The theory encompassed and superceded the older theory of continental drift from the first half of the 20th century and the concept of sea floor spreading developed during the 1960s.
The outermost part of the Earth's interior is made up of two layers: the lithosphere comprising the crust and the solidified uppermost part of the mantle. Below the lithosphere lies the asthenosphere which comprises the inner viscous part of the mantle. The mantle behaves like a superheated and extremely viscous liquid.
The lithosphere essentially floats on the asthenosphere. The lithosphere is broken up into what are called tectonic plates - in the case of Earth, there are ten major and many minor plates. These plates move in relation to one another at one of three types of plate boundaries: convergent, divergent, and transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries.
2006-08-14 20:01:03
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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theory dealing with the dynamics of the Earth's outer shell, the lithosphere. According to the theory, the lithosphere consists of about a dozen large plates and several small ones. These plates move relative to each other and interact at their boundaries, where they diverge, converge, or slip relatively harmlessly past one another. Such interactions are thought to be responsible for most of the seismic and volcanic activity of the Earth, although earthquakes and volcanoes are not wholly absent in plate interiors. While moving about, the plates cause mountains to rise where they push together and continents to fracture and oceans to form where they pull apart. The continents, sitting passively on the backs of plates, drift with them and thereby bring about continual changes in the Earth's geography.
2006-08-15 02:06:33
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answer #4
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answered by Marco S 1
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<> Any theory that theories could a technique or the different get promoted into being referred to as regulations is nonsense. So referred to as regulations are nonetheless theories as nicely. Any theory that regulations could be a technique or the different greater helpful supported than theories could additionally be incorrect. The corridors of technology are affected by utilising discarded 'regulations' introduced at a while or different which, ultimately, grew to become out to be insufficient. as an occasion, a researcher named Dollo poposed a regulation retaining that, as quickly as a particular actual function were lost over the generations, then it may no longer probable re-emerge. If that have been strictly maximum dazzling, then no whale could desire to probable be born with rudimentary legs seeing as such limbs have been distributed of by utilising their ancestors. Whales have been much less confident of this than Monsieur Dollo, and rudimentary legs each and every each and every now and then take place as so referred to as atavistic characters. Dollo's liked regulation replaced into incorrect in such situations even with being referred to as a regulation. regulations ain't a technique or the different greater desirable to theories.
2016-12-17 11:06:23
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answer #5
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answered by ? 4
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What do you want to discuss? the theory is that one day all the land masses will reunite into a new Pangaea, all the humans will be thrown together and there will be no more boards, we will have to get along with one an other. Or sent into utter chaos.
2006-08-15 06:19:58
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answer #6
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answered by wolf 5
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it is the theory proposed by the scientists in which the massy plates under the ground
tend to colloide or move away from each other
2006-08-14 18:53:44
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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plate tectonics are like a gigantic iceberg, most of its mass is underneath and cant be seen
2006-08-14 19:51:09
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answer #8
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answered by harry 2
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