Plate Boundaries Explorer
The Earth's layered structure, the convection currents that move the plates, and the four types of plate boundary with the volcanoes and earthquakes each one causes.
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The restless Earth
The Earth's surface is broken into huge slabs of rock called tectonic plates. They float on the hot, slowly moving rock beneath and grind against one another at their edges, the plate boundaries. That movement is what causes earthquakes and volcanoes. This module explores the Earth's structure and the different types of plate boundary.
Words of the Earth
The key ideas for plate tectonics:
Layers of the Earth
Put the Earth's layers in order, from the SURFACE down to the CENTRE.
- Crust: thin, solid, on the surface
- Mantle: thick, hot, slowly flowing rock
- Outer core: liquid metal
- Inner core: solid metal, at the centre
What moves the plates?
What drives the slow movement of the tectonic plates?
- Convection currents in the mantle
- Strong winds on the surface
- The ocean tides
- Earthquakes pushing them along
Constructive vs destructive
Two of the main boundary types work in opposite ways.
Match the boundary
- Constructive boundary
- Destructive boundary
- Conservative boundary
- Collision boundary
- Plates move apart and new crust forms
- One plate subducts, with violent volcanoes
- Plates slide past, with strong quakes but no volcanoes
- Two continental plates push up fold mountains
Name the boundary
At which type of boundary do two plates slide past each other, causing strong earthquakes but no volcanoes?
- A conservative boundary
- A constructive boundary
- A destructive boundary
- A collision boundary
Boundaries and hotspots
At a conservative boundary the plates slide past each other. There is no gap and no subduction, so there are no volcanoes, but the plates can jam and then jerk free, giving powerful earthquakes, as at the San Andreas Fault. Not all volcanoes sit on boundaries. A hotspot is a plume of hot magma that rises through the middle of a plate, forming volcanoes such as those of Hawaii.
At a destructive boundary
Select the TWO things that happen at a destructive (subduction) plate boundary.
- Violent volcanoes form as the sinking plate melts
- Strong earthquakes occur as the plates lock and slip
- New crust is made as the plates move apart
- Nothing hazardous ever happens
Plate tectonics in words
The Earth's plates float on the _____ and are moved by _____ currents. Where plates move apart, at a _____ boundary, new crust forms. Where a plate sinks beneath another, at a _____ boundary, there are violent volcanoes. Where plates slide past, at a _____ boundary, there are strong earthquakes but no volcanoes.
Spot the constructive boundary
Tap the TWO things that happen at a CONSTRUCTIVE plate boundary.
- Plates move apart
- One plate subducts and melts
- New crust forms from rising magma
- Plates slide past each other
- Fold mountains are pushed up
Identify the boundary
Use the clues to work out each plate boundary.
- Two plates are pulling apart under the ocean, and magma rises to make new sea floor. Which boundary is this?
- An oceanic plate is sinking beneath a continental plate, causing violent volcanoes. Which boundary is this?
- Along a fault, two plates grind past each other and suddenly slip, causing a strong earthquake but no volcano. Which boundary is this?
Explain the hazards
Explain why volcanoes and earthquakes happen at a destructive plate boundary, and why a conservative boundary has earthquakes but no volcanoes. Write in clear, full sentences.
- Describe what the plates do at a destructive boundary (subduction)
- Explain why this causes both volcanoes and earthquakes
- Describe what the plates do at a conservative boundary
- Explain why there are earthquakes but no volcanoes there