How have tetonic plates changed the landscape of the planet?

What causes tectonic plate???

6 Comments on “How have tetonic plates changed the landscape of the planet?

  1. tectonic plates change the planet every day, underground magma caused by how our planet exists , there are some good DVDs on this subject

  2. Originally there was only 1 continent, Panagea. The movements of tectonic plates over the ages have divided that single landmass into different continents.

  3. There are several excellent web-sites that have many globes that show how plate tectonics has changed the landscape of the Earth over geologic time. Sorry, but it did NOT start with Pangea, Pangea is relatively recent, 200 million years ago, but the Earth is much older than that. Rhodinia preceded Pangea Continental crust is created by subduction of oceanic crust and volcanism. The force behind plate tectonics is the convection and conduction of mantle plumes in the liquid outer core of the Earth.

    http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html

    http://cpgeosystems.com/globaltext2.html

    http://cpgeosystems.com/600Marect.jpg

    Other web-pages, including some with animations:

    http://www.scotese.com/
    http://www.scotese.com/newpage13.htm

    These maps go back only 600 million years, but Earth is much older than that

    …Introduction: Plate tectonics has been regarded as a scientific revolution. If so 1 might argue that it is incomplete. While we have a detailed comprehending of how the plates behave, the relationship between plate motions and convection in the mantle is still vigorously debated. This is evident in the ongoing talk aboution about mantle plumes and hot spot trails. New information from seismic tomography and modeling capacities promise to provide insight in the near future. As we expand our knowledge in science we also expand the boundaries of the unknown. Convection is also a fundamentally important process that controls much of the dynamics of atmospheric, ocean, mantle and outer core systems. …

    http://maps.unomaha.edu/Maher/plate/week13/mechanisms.html

  4. Well our planet is made up of a series of layers. We’re on what is known as the earths crust which is divided into many pieces which are the tectonic plates.Underneath the crust is what we call the mantle which is like a treacly layer made up of molten rock and magma. In the mantle there are strong currents called convection currents which occasionally force the plates out of place, which creates earthquakes. Hope this helped!

  5. Just a note to add they’re also affected by the Earths spinning motion effectively making a bulge round the equator making the earth 14km wider across than at its poles.

    Another factor is the gravitational effect of the sun, as we orbit it, rather like the moons effect on the oceans, it creates a tidal effect.