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Plate Tectonics 1) What is Pangea? Pangea is a fruit. Found in Yugoslavia. Poisonous, so no one has ever lived to tell of the flavor. Pangea is a supercontinent. Formed billions of years ago. Broke apart due to continental drift. Pangea is a new brand of computer. Meant for the 22nd century so it is top secret. I don't know. :(

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Major Geological Features in California

There are many geological features in California. Some major features are the San Andreas Fault, Mount Shasta, and the San Bernardino Mountains. The San Andreas Fault run through the coast of California. This fault was formed when there was pressure or tension in a rock. Mount Shasta is located near Redding. It is a stratovolcano, a cone-shaped volcano. Stratovolcanoes have several vents that erupt lava. Volcanoes are formed at transform boundaries. Transform boundaries are when two plates slide past each other in opposite directions. The San Bernardino Mountains are located in southern California. These and other mountains were formed at convergent boundaries. Convergent boundaries are where two plates crash together and fold into mountains. 

Layers of the Earth

Do you know where the hottest place on Earth is? It's not the Sahara Desert, or on the face of the earth at all. To get there we must go through the four layers of the earth. The outermost layer is the crust. It is five to ten kilometers thick in the ocean basins. The mantle is the next layer. It is 2900 kilometers thick and is much hotter than the crust. It temperature gets up to 1000 degrees Celsius. Most of the earth's internal heat is located here. The second closest to the center of the earth is the outer core. It is filled with molten or liquid rock and iron. The earth's magnetic field is controlled by the liquid outer core. The temperatures here can get up to about 3700 degrees Celsius! That's hot! And it's also 5200 kilometers thick. The inner core is solid and is the center of the earth. It is almost completely composed of iron. It is also 4300 degrees celsius. 

Mid-Ocean Ridge

The earth's longest mountain range is not on land, but underwater. This long mountain ridge is the Mid Ocean Ridge. It is where Earth's tectonic plates are slowly moving apart. It is 56,000 kilometers long! The mountains and valleys on it marks where the crustal plates are moving apart. The energy that makes this happen is from the heat in the earth's core created by radioactive decay. New crust under the ocean is created here. A lot of the earth's internal heat is released here. 

The Ring of FIre

Remember when Nemo swam through the "Ring of Fire" in the fish tank? The Ring of Fire is actually an area where there are frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that encircle the basin of the Pacific Ocean. Ninety percent of the world's earthquakes occur there!

Convergent and Divergent Boundaries

Convergent and divergent boundaries are places where giant plates, or tectonic plates on the earth's crust that come together or pull apart. Volcanoes or mountains are formed when these plates converge or diverge. New land is formed at divergent boundaries. As the plates come apart, a small section of land is left between them. The block will sink into the asthenosphere and create a rift. Magma will seep upward in between the cracks of the diverging plates. Therefore, new land is formed. At convergent boundaries, mountain ranges and earthquakes form. While the edge of the continental plate folds, the oceanic plate slides under, deep into the earth's mantle. This creates a trench, which causes the rocks in the plates to break, causing earthquakes.

Pangea

Many people didn't believe that there was a supercontinent called Pangea a long time ago. Now archaeologists and scientists found evidence that supports this idea. Fossils of the same living being were found on different continents separated by miles of ocean. They could not have swam the distance. The continents must have moved due to continental drift causing Pangea to break apart. What's causing these lithospheric plates to move? The convection currents inside the mantle are. Hot substances rise and cooler substances sink. The plates move about 1 cm per year! Also, when you study a map, you might have noticed that some of the continents fit together perfectly like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Lastly, the same natural resources such as coal were found on where the continents used to fit together.