Plate Tectonics Evidence
Nevaeh Price
Continental Drift
It is a theory is a that explains how the continents shift. That was discovered by Alfred Wegener in 1912. He was geologist and meteorologist.
Fossil Evidence
Fossils show skeletons of animals that used to be on Earth. There are many of the same fossils found on different continents. This shows that those continents used to be together.
Rock Evidence
There are mountains on different continents that looks like they used to be connected. Alfred matched up rocks to see if they used to be "stuck" together like the continents. Example: the Appalachian Mountains (United States) and Caledonian Mountains (Scotland) fit together.
Plate Tectonics
Is a theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into a lot of plates. It is divided into 3 plate boundaries, convergent, divergent, and transform. They act like a hard and rigid shell compared to Earth's mantle.
Sea-Floor Spreading
Magma rises and cools down to make new crust under the ocean. The new crust is younger than the crust farther away that rises up. So it shows that there is a divergent plate boundary for the magma to rise up.
Earthquake and Volcano Mapping
Earthquakes and volcanoes consistently land in the same spots continuously. The spots show what they believe are the plate boundaries. Since very few earthquakes and volcanoes happen in the middle of the continents, they believe they are in the center of the plates.
Hot Spots
Hot spots are in an area under the crust that is hotter and it causes magma to rise. They are not close to plate boundaries. Scientists thinks that the hot spot stays in one place while the other plate moves over the hot spot. The hot spot is shown well in Hawaiian islands because the youngest island is volcanic while the older ones no longer volcanic.