Plate-tectonics

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Plate tectonics 

  Earth’s surface may seem fixed but in made up of lots huge slabs called tectonic plates. These plates move slowly but constantly ,and movement between them create earthquakes and volcanoes. Most tectonic plate carry both oceans and continents, though a few are almost entirely oceanic. Where tow plates pull apart under an ocean,new ocean floor is formed. Where plates are pushed together,dramatic changes to the landscape can occur. If borth edges are continental ,a huge mountain range will form in the collsion zone.

Earth’s plates 

  The top layer of Earth is like a jigsaw, with seven or eight large plates and dozens of smaller, more fragmented plates. These plates float around, moving on top of the hotter layers below. Their slow,steady movement can change the size of the oceans, and carry continents around the globe
Plate boundaries
The edges of tectonic plates meet up in different ways. The plates move apart, towards each other,or past each other. Earthqakes can occur in any ooofff these circumstances, and studying earthquakes can help us work out where plate boundaries lie. Sometimes there are so many cracks that it is impossible to tell exactly where one plate ends and next one begins.

Convergent 

   Where aplate with oceanic crust moves towards aplate with thicker, continental crust, it will be pushed down or’’ subducted’’ the oceanic plate then melts, can create volcanoes as magma bubble up to the surface. If two continents collide, they will pushup against each other, creating mountain ranges.





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Transform 

   When plate slide past other, they create a transform boundary. Movement at these plate edges is not smooth and gradual-it is very jerky, and earthquakes occur when a sudden shift releases huge amounts of energy. Volcanoes are rare at these boundaries, because little or no magma is created.
Divergent 

   Where plates pull apart, they create a divergent boundary. When this happens under oceans, rock from the mantle is drawn up into the gap and some of it melts as it rises,crating new oceaniccrust. As new crust is foemed, other parts of crust are destroyed at convergent boundaries- so Earth stays the same size.