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 🪜
An interactive activity.
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 🖍️
An interactive activity.
Identify the boundary 🧭
An interactive activity.
Explain the hazards ✍️
An interactive activity.