Plate Tectonics

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Plate Tectonics
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Plate Tectonics PASS Preparation
Teacher Guide
This PowerPoint is designed to reinforce student
knowledge of plate tectonics. Examples of
questions on this topic can be found on page 51
of the Oklahoma PASS Social Studies Test
Preparation Workbook Middle Grades Level.
Overview
NCGE Standards
The World in Spatial Terms STANDARD 1 How to
use maps and other geographic representations,
tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and
report information. Physical Systems STANDARD
7 The physical processes that shape the patterns
of Earth's surface. Environment and Society
STANDARD 15 How physical systems affect human
systems.
7th Grade World Geography STANDARD 3 The
student will examine the interactions of physical
systems that shape the patterns of the earths
resources. STANDARD 5. The student will examine
the interactions of humans and their environment.
 
PASS Objectives
Grade Level
Seventh Grade
GIS Skill Level
No GIS knowledge is necessary
One 50-minute class periods for completion of
activity.
Time
Materials
This activity does not requires personal
computers.
Sources
Oklahoma PASS Social Studies Test Preparation
Workbook Middle Grades Level, Prentice Hall
2001.
Plate Tectonics PASS Preparation
Teacher Guide
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Page 51 Oklahoma PASS Social Studies Test
Preparation Workbook Middle Grades Level
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Continental Drift

• Alfred Wegener 1912
• Noticed how continents seemed to fit together
• Pangaea all lands
• Couldnt explain it geologically

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Break-up of Pangaea
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Continental Drift

• How could we test or verify this?

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Plate Tectonics

• A framework for understanding the massive crustal
  rearrangement that has taken place.
• How have continents been moved?
• Giant convection cells powered by radiation in
  the Earths mantle.
• New crust is created at mid-oceanic ridges

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Convective cells
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Oceanic ridges
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Types of Plate Boundaries

• 1. Divergent boundaries (Seafloor spreading)
• Occurs at oceanic ridges
• 2. Convergent boundaries
• One plate slides under another
• Transcurrent boundaries
• Plates slide by one another

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Converging plates
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Transcurrent boundary (San Andreas Fault)
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Wegener Was Right

• Continental shelves do fit
• Glacial evidence in Africa and South America
• Matching geology
• Matching fossil record (plants and animals) in
  Africa and South Africa, Europe and North
  America, Madagascar and India
• Paleomagnetism
• Hot spots
• Uniformitarianism
• GPS

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Source Dorling Kindersley
Continental shelves fit
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Glacial sediments found in tropical and
subtropical regions of Africa and South America
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Matching Geological Record
Source Florida State University
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Matching Fossil Record
Source Florida State University
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Paleomagnetism
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Age of plates
Source University of Oklahoma

• Movement rates verified by GPS
• Average plate movement is several centimeters a
  year

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Hot Spot
Source USGS
Source National Geographic
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Plate boundaries and hotspots
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Pacific Ring of Fire
Source Wikimedia Commons
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Plate Tectonics

• Why care?

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Volcanoes
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1986 Mexico City Earthquake
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Coastal town Before
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Coastal town After
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Name Hour

• 1. Most volcanoes and earthquakes occur
• a. Near the centers of continents
• b. Along plate boundaries
• c. Around Antarctica
• d. In northern Eurasia
• 2. The theory of plate tectonics states that
• a. The Earths surface never changes
• b. The Earths outer shell is one solid piece of
  rock
• c. The Earths oceans and continents ride on top
  of moving plates
• d. The Earths surface is made up of plates that
  do not move
• 3. The volcanically active ring that surrounds
  the Pacific Ocean is known as
• a. The Ring of Death
• b. The Volcanic Bowl
• c. The Ring of Fire
• 4. Name three major natural hazards associated
  with tectonic plate boundaries

6. True or False (Circle One). The Earths
magnetic pole flips occasionally (approximately
every 100,000 years). 7. True or False (Circle
One). Continental plates move several miles
each year. 8. True of False (Circle One).
Wegeners studies of continental drift emphasized
matching coastlines, fossils, and rocks in Africa
and Europe. 9. True of False (Circle One).
Wegeners name for the protocontinent that broke
apart into todays continents was Pangaea. 10.
True of False (Circle One). Earthquakes are
most common at transcurrent boundaries.
Plate Tectonics PASS Preparation
Questions