Princess Sarah B.

Medrano

ACTIVITY 2

Q1. Figure A shows the process of convection in the earth’s mantle. How does it affect the
formation of mountains and the temperature on the surface (ground)?

- It affects the formation of mountains as tectonic plates slowly move away from each
other, heat from the mantle’s convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense.
The less-dense material rises, often forming a mountain. Convection is a process where heat is
transferred by hot particles moving in fluids. Although the mantle is solid, in the long term, it
does have enough fluidity to transfer heat by convection. By mapping the convection currents,
we can see that there are regular patters of hot and cold areas. Some of the warmer areas,
known as “hot spots” can cause the crust to melt wherein in here subduction happens as plates
become unstable, they push against each other where the leading edge will go beneath the
other plate and will melt because the mantle is hot then the materials or magma will rise
upwards and will erupt to form mountains, volcanoes, volcanic islands, and many more. The
other crustal phenomena convection causes, or rather contributes to, is plate tectonics. The
heat transfer by convection provides some of the energy that causes stress in the crust that
makes it tend to move. The crust is split into areas bound by faults known as plates, and where
these meet, these stresses are released causing crustal melting and deformity of rock leading to
geothermal energy, creation of volcanoes, and formation of mountains. Wherein when the
convention occur the land masses break apart, and the temperature in the ground increases as
the magma came out of the earth's interior.

Q2. How the convection current affects the movement of tectonic plates?

- Convection currents describe the rising, spreading, and sinking of gas, liquid, or molten
material caused by the application of heat. Tremendous heat and pressure within the earth
causes the hot magma to flow in convection currents. These currents cause the movement of
the tectonic plates that make up the earth's crust. In other words, rising magma pushes against
and along tectonic plates, which eventually moves the plates together, apart, or along each
other. When magma comes to the top of the mantle, it pushes against tectonic plates, which
are huge slabs of rock which the crust rests on. It is at the top of the mantle that the magma
begins to drop again, but before it does so, it pushes against the tectonic plates and travels
almost horizontally, moving the plates in one direction or another.

Q3. How does convection in the earth’s interior and conduction in the surface affect the
temperature in our atmosphere?

- Conduction and convection both play a role in moving heat between Earth's surface
and the atmosphere. Since air is a poor conductor, most energy transfer by conduction occurs
right near Earth's surface. Convection in the earth’s interior and conduction in the surface
directly affects air temperature only a few centimeters into the atmosphere. During the day,
sunlight heats the ground, which in turn heats the air directly above it through conduction.

Q4. How does subduction cause the formation of land masses like mountains and volcanoes?

- When plates undergo subduction, the plates have the tendency to buckle or fold,
forming mountains. Volcanoes are formed on subduction zones mainly due to the melting of
the oceanic crust or the leading edge wherein it will be called as magma which migrates
upwards until it erupts on the surface. In other words, when a plate sinks in a subduction zone,
it brings along many things with it like water, rocks, and sediments. But as it gets lower, the
solids it brought will melt and the fluids will vaporize as it settles to the mantle, adding more
materials under the other plate and increasing the pressure. The increased pressure forced the
hot materials below to go up and get out of the other plate as volcanic eruptions. The ejected
materials will cool down and eventually become the landmasses and landforms like mountains
and volcanoes.
Q5. Why does earthquake occur in subduction zone? (The area where subduction occurs)

- Earthquakes occur in subduction zones because the plates pass one another at
different depths along their leading edges or they collide with each other. This causes one plate
to float above the other plate to some degree. When pressure is relieved along the fault line,
the two plates rub against one another in ways that are often much more irregular than other
fault lines are because there is material that is being rolled and spun around within the area of
friction. This creates a stronger sense of shaking producing much more vibrations and may
result in sections of the fault line being pushed upward by the force of the collision of the
faults. The upward thrusting also creates its own shock waves which may move differently and
cause more destruction.

Q6. Synthesis: Based from figure A and B, how convection and conduction is inter-related?

- Based from Figure A and B, convection and conduction is inter-related by the fact that
both of them are physical processes that transfer energy in the form of heat. Conduction
usually occurs in solids, through molecular collision. Convection occurs in fluids by mass motion
of molecules in the same direction. The transfer of heat is through heated solid substance, in
conduction, whereas in convection the heat energy is transmitted by way of intermediate
medium. Another one is conduction is the transfer of thermal energy through direct contact
while convection is the transfer of thermal energy through the movement of a liquid or gas.
That is how convection and conduction inter-related.