Inside our Earth

What keeps the Earth’s tectonic plates in motion?

Inside our EarthLithosphere

~ The solid, ground part of our Earth;

measures roughly 62 miles thick and includes the

crust and the ocean floor.

Inside our EarthAsthenosphere

~ The layer just below the lithosphere and found in the upper mantle; made up of rock that is hot, soft, and

slightly fluid.

Inside our EarthConvection Current

~ the path along which energy is transferred through a liquid; heat rises, cools, heats up and rises again…thought to be the driving

force of continental drift in the asthenosphere.

Inside our EarthOther examples of convection currents…

A feature that rises above the surrounding landscape. In most cases, mountains are created

from plate movement.

Four Basic Types:

• Folded

• Fault-Block

• Dome

• Volcano

Folded Mountains

These mountains form when two tectonic plates collide

(Swiss Alps, Himalayas, Urals)

Himalaya Mountains

Alberta, Canada

Sierra Nevada Range, California

Fault-Block Mountains

These mountains form when masses of rock move up or down along a fault

(Wasatch Range in Utah)

Wasatch Range, Utah

Franklin Mountains, Texas

Dome Mountains

The surface is lifted up by magma, forming a bulge; the rock layers have worn away

exposing the other layers of rock.

(Pike’s Peak in Colorado, Big Horn)

Bighorn, North Dakota

Castle Dome Mountains, Arizona

Half Dome, Yosemite California

Volcano

Form when magma erupts from an opening in Earth’s surface.

(Mt. St. Helens - USA, Mt. Fuji - Japan)

Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Fuji

Hawaii

Hawaii

PompeiiAugust 24, 79 AD, the sleeping town of

Pompeii, Italy was destroyed by a volcano…Mt. Vesuvius.

Mt. Vesuvius, Italy

Pompeii

Pompeii

~ The city would remain buried for over 1700 years under several feet of ash, lava, and

rock that fell on the city.

~ The people who lived here never knew what hit them – the rock and ash

preserved their bodies in the position they last were in and it would not be until 1860 that the archaeologist, Giuseppe Fiorelli,

would be able to see their story…

Pompeii