Sound & Space

Unit: 6
Tectonics 6.5
Learning
Objective
9ESp.01 Explain the movement
of tectonic plates in terms of
convection currents.
Key Words

jigsaw continental coasts fossil record alignment

Warm Up!
 1 The Earth consists of an inner core, an outer
core, a mantle and a crust in order of increasing
distance from the centre. This would be best
shown on a labelled diagram.

2 The crust is not just one solid layer but has parts
that move independently – these are the tectonic
Answers! plates. The tectonic plates are supported by, and
move on, the mantle.

3 Volcanoes, earthquakes and the formation of

fold mountains are all more likely at tectonic plate
boundaries.
Map of the
World!
• How do the tectonic plates move?

• What causes the movement?

 You may recall from Stage 7 that the outer
layers of the Earth are the solid, rocky crust
which rests on the more fluid mantle. The
mantle is heated from the innermost part of the
Earth: the inner core. The inner core is
estimated to be at a temperature of over 5000
Movement of °C!

tectonic plates
The high temperature of the inner core is due to
thermal energy left over from the formation of
the Earth, friction inside the Earth and the type
of reactions that happen in the rocks.
 You may also recall from Unit 3 that thermal
energy is transferred through fluids by convection
and that convection currents occur in fluids.

Convection
Currents The inner part of the mantle gets thermal energy
from the core. The fluid in the mantle then
expands when heated and becomes less dense that
the fluid surrounding it. This hotter, less dense
fluid in the mantle rises towards the crust, cools
and sinks again, resulting in a convection current.
Movement of the Plates
• The mantle is a very thick fluid and does not flow
easily like water, so the convection currents move
very slowly. As the convection currents in the
mantle move across underneath the crust, the
tectonic plates that make up the crust are pulled
along. Just as the convection currents are slow, the
movement of the tectonic plates is also slow,
varying between 0.6 and 10 cm per year.
Evidence for
tectonic plates
• When you look at a world map, it looks
like the continents could fi t together
like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. A
jigsaw puzzle is a picture that is cut into
small interlocking pieces. The object of
the puzzle is to put the pieces back
together to form the original picture.
Continental Coasts
• Scientists have done this with the continents on
Earth. The continental coasts can fit together as
shown in the diagram. Scientists say that this
continental jigsaw appearance is evidence for
tectonic plates. There is a hypothesis that there
was once only one large continent that eventually
separated. The separate parts became some of the
tectonic plates, and the convection currents from
the mantle drove their movement.
More Evidence
• The fossil record provides more evidence for
tectonic plates and their movement. The fossil
record is the name given to the collection of
thousands of fossils that provide us with
information about the time before humans were on
Earth. Fossils are the remains of dead animals and
plants that have turned to stone over millions of
years.
Magnetic
Field
• You may recall from Stage 8 that the
Earth has a magnetic field. Today, the
needle of a magnetic compass will point
towards north, but that was not always
the case. Around 780 000 years ago, the
same compass needle would have
pointed south! Scientists now know that
the Earth’s magnetic poles have
swapped positions almost 200 times in
the last 100 million years.
Alignment
• Magnetic crystals in molten rocks will line up to
point north in the same way as a compass needle.
When the rock solidifies, scientists can use these
crystals to tell the direction of the Earth’s
magnetic field at the time when the rock became
solid. The direction that the crystals are pointing is
called alignment. The word alignment means to
line up in a particular way.
Mid-Oceanic Ridges,
• The magnetic crystals in rocks found in the middle of
the Earth’s oceans have been studied. In these
locations, called mid-oceanic ridges, magma is coming
up from the mantle and solidifying to form new rocks.
This action pushes the continents away from each
other. The magnetic crystals in the mid-oceanic ridges
always have an alignment to north because the Earth’s
magnetic field is currently in that direction. Rocks
further away from these ridges contain magnetic
crystals with the opposite alignment. This suggests that
these rocks are much older.

• If the hypothesis of moving tectonic plates was correct,

then we would expect there to be more earthquakes and
volcanoes at the tectonic plate boundaries. This I
indeed the case, as shown on the map.
Learner’s
Book page:
237
Workbook page: 127-128
Workbook Page: 129-130 6.5 B