Essay About Inner Core And North American

Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics
By; Jason Caruso
Period: 6
The beginnings of the theory of plate tectonics date to around 1920, when Alfred
accounts of how todays continents were once a large supercontinent that slowly drifted to
Wegener. The German meteorologist and geophysicist, presented the first detailed
the positions there at today. Others created evidence, but continental drift did not attract
wide interest until the late 1950s.When scientists found the alignment of magnetic
particles in rock responded to the earths magnetic field of that time. But paleomagnetic
polar changes showed that all continents had moved across the earth over time.
Evidence for movement and changes in the geosphere over time.
According to plate tectonics, the ocean basins are viewed as features that have
theoretically opened and closed, first tearing and then putting back together the
continental masses. Which are permanent features on the earths surface. Geologists now
believe that the continents were put together 200 million years ago at the beginning of the
Mesozoic time to form a supercontinent called Pangaea. Initial cracking along a northern
continental mass, Laurasia, and a southern continental mass, Gondwanaland. Then plate
movements caused North American and Eurasian separation coincidentally with the
separation of South America, Africa, and India. Australia and Antarctica were the last to
separate. The major plates are named after the dominant geographic feature on them such
as the North American and South American plates.Plate motions are believed to have
transported large crustal blocks several thousand miles, disturbing very different terrains
together after collision with a larger mass. These terrains may include segments of island
arcs quite unrelated to the history of the continent onto which they are put to geather.
Some geologists believe that continents grow in size just by the addition of exotic
terrains.
The flow of matter and energy in the earth.
The flow of matter in the earth is the asthenosphere. It is made up of melted iron and
nickel. Which makes an extraordinarily hot liquid that flows around the earth’s inner
core. The inner core is made up of solid iron and nickel. Eventually the entire
asthenosphere will become solid as well. But this will not occur for billions and billions
of years.
The lithosphere is also a flow of matter in the earth