Plate Tectonics Explained | Plate Boundaries | Convection Currents

All the basics you need to know about plate tectonics.
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Thanks for stopping by, today we are talking about plate tectonics.

Earth’s crust is made up of plates that move across the Earth’s surface. The continents sit on these plates and move around with them. You may be familiar with the supercontinent Pangea that formed about 270 million years ago. Its formation (and subsequent separation) were the result of plate tectonics.

So what is causing these plates to move?

The main driver of plate movement is convection. Convection is the heating and cooling of the mantle. The hot mantle rises up towards the crust where is it cooled, causing it to sink back down to be reheated. This cycle is repeated and it moves the plates along.

Anywhere two plates meet is called a plate boundary. There are three main types. Convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries, and transform boundaries. I’ll talk about each of these briefly.

Convergent boundaries are where two plates come together in a head-on collision, usually between an oceanic plate and a continental plate. When this happens, one plate will be subducted beneath the other plate. So it will be pulled into the mantle and melted down. This melting can cause a volcano to form on the continental plate.

At divergent boundaries, two plates are moving in opposite directions. As convection currents drive these plates apart, magma rises up from the mantle to form new crust and a ridge or depression between the two plates.

And finally in transform boundaries two plates slide past one another. This sliding motion results in built up tension that, when released, causes earthquakes. The San Andreas fault is a well known transform boundary.

So remember, convection currents in the upper mantle cause plates to move, resulting in the three boundary types we discussed. All of this is happening along the earth’s plates simultaneously and moves the continents about 1 inch per year.

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I’ll catch you next time.

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