Plate Boundaries Explorer
How the earth works beneath our feet: tectonic plates driven by convection currents, and the three types of plate margin that cause earthquakes and volcanoes.
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Plate tectonics 🌋
The earth crust is broken into large tectonic plates that slowly move on the hot mantle below, driven by convection currents. Where plates meet, at a plate margin, earthquakes and volcanoes occur. There are three main types of plate margin, and each one moves in a different way and creates different hazards.
Words for tectonics 🔑
Learn these four terms before you explore the margins.
Three plate margins 🆚
Each type of margin moves differently and makes different hazards.
Grade 9 thinking 💡
To reach the top grades, link the movement at each margin to the hazard it produces, for example subduction at a destructive margin causing both earthquakes and volcanoes.
Match the margin to what happens 🔗
- a constructive margin
- a destructive margin
- a conservative margin
- the Ring of Fire
- plates move apart and new crust forms
- an oceanic plate subducts beneath another
- plates slide past each other
- a zone of many volcanoes around the Pacific
Match the term to its meaning 🧩
- plate
- mantle
- convection current
- subduction
- a large section of the earth crust
- the hot layer beneath the crust
- the flow of heat that moves the plates
- when one plate sinks beneath another
What moves the plates? ❓
What drives the movement of tectonic plates?
- Convection currents in the mantle.
- The rotation of the moon.
- Ocean tides.
Where volcanoes form ✅
Select the TWO plate margins where volcanoes form.
- Constructive margins.
- Destructive margins.
- Conservative margins.
- Flat plains far from a margin.
Order the destructive margin 🪜
An interactive activity.
Summarise tectonics 📝
The earth crust is broken into _____ that move on the _____, driven by convection currents. At a _____ margin, an oceanic plate subducts and magma rises to form a volcano. At a conservative margin, plates _____ past each other, causing earthquakes. Most volcanoes lie in the Ring of _____.
Count the margins 🔢
An interactive activity.
Spot the two volcanic margins 🖍️
An interactive activity.
Which plate margin? 🧭
An interactive activity.
Explain the volcanoes ✍️
An interactive activity.