Evidence and theories

• Scientists collect evidence,
including objects they have
Records
found and things they have
observed, as part of their
research. Insight
Scientific
Analysis
Theory/Model
• Based on this evidence, they
Data
come up with a theory that
explains how something
occurs—or has occurred—in Experiments

the natural world.

Continental Drift Theory
• Scientists use theories to explain
everything from how the
universe began to why objects
fall to the ground.
• In 1915, German scientist
Alfred Wegener published a
book to present a theory he
called "continental drift."
• Wegener believed that the large
pieces of land we call continents
move over long periods of time.
Evidence to support continental drift

Shape similarity Fossils

Similarity of
Glacial and Coal
rocks and
Deposits
mountains
Shape similarity – the Fossils – plant and animal
coasts of South America fossils are found on
and Africa join almost like different that are now
a jigsaw puzzle very far apart
Similarity of rocks and Glacial striations and coal
mountains across deposits in areas that are
now areas that would not
continents
support them
Plate tectonics
 Plate tectonics – boundary interactions
• The edges of the tectonic plates are
called plate boundaries, and events
such as earthquakes, volcanoes and
tsunamis originate at these narrow
boundary zones between the plates.
• Different type of interactions occur
between plates as they move
around, producing different types
of earthquakes and volcanos.
• Plates may pull apart, collide,
or scrape past each other.
 Divergent
• Plates moving apart produce a
divergent plate boundary.
• Almost all of the Earth's new crust
forms at divergent boundaries.
• When the plates move away from each
other the magma from the mantle rises
up and forces its way to the surface in
a lava flow, where it solidifies as new
crust.
• Many divergent plate margins are
under the oceans, creating long
undersea rift zones that fill with lava -
called mid-ocean ridges.
Seafloor Spreading – samples of
ocean floor are youngest close to World map showing
the ridge, and older as you move
further away. In other words, new
mid-ocean ridges
crust is created at mid-ocean
ridges and spreads out
 Convergent
• Plates pushing against each other or are
colliding produce a convergent plate
boundary.
• This type of boundary results in one plate is
being pulled beneath another (subduction)
forming a deep trench.
• The long, narrow zone where the two
plates meet is called the subduction zone.
The more dense oceanic crust is being
subducted under the less dense continental
crust.
• Subduction zones tend to create large,
cone-shaped volcanoes.
 Transform
• A transform plate boundary occurs
where one plate grinds past
another, side by side.
• An example of this type of boundary
occurs off the west coast of
California, and separates the Pacific
plate from the North American
plate along the San Andreas fault -
a famous plate that is responsible
for many of California's earthquakes.
Assignment:
Vocabulary – write a definition for each,
and what happens at each boundary
• Plate tectonics
• Fault
• Divergent
• Convergent
• Transform