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Through use of this resource students are given the opportunity to see what the forces of tectonic plates do to continents of their own creation. This encourages students to use higher order thinking skills and be creative in a way previous activities could not. this is a great tool for teachers who want to give their students the opportunity to learn independently.

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This resource allows students to explore the factors involved with plate tectonics. Students can manipulate the way places converge, transform, or diverge and see what the real consequences of these shifts are. This resource allows students to have a look below the earths surface and study the impact of tectonic shifts.

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Explore how plates move on the surface of the earth. Change temperature, composition, and thickness of plates. Discover how to create new mountains, volcanoes, or oceans!

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This YouTube channel was created by expert scientist, Hank Green, and award winning author, John Green. Together, they have created an introductory video for most topics, all of which contain valuable sources in the description which state where they collected this information from. Overall, crash course videos, including this one, are informative and fun for students who are new to a topic.

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The Plate Tectonics Revolution: Crash Course Geography #19

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A fascinating video which explains the process which causes earthquakes, it discusses the effects of plate tectonics and explains how they move under the surface through convection currents.

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Understanding Earthquakes | National Geographic

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A great interactive activity to educate students on what occurs inside the earth and the seismic evidence that supports this. This activity allows students to click on different key points and discover different insights about the way the earths core works.

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Earth’s layers poster PERU. MOBILE 11.2024 v2

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Popcorn reading, or reading around the class is a great way to promote the literacy general capability. Through an activity like this teachers are able to inform students while encouraging them to develop their literacy skills. This resource highlights the way plate tectonics work and how the Earth’s internal processes interact with the planets crust.

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Seashells in rocks on mountain tops, underwater mountain chains, and continents that look like giant pieces of a global puzzle provide evidence that Earth's continents and seafloors move and change over time.

The theory of plate tectonics explains processes in the geosphere that are fueled by Earth's internal heat that have operated over billions of years. These changes can be imperceptible over a human lifetime or violent and abrupt, and continue to shape Earth's environments.

On this page:

For the classroom:

Global Change Infographic

The theory of plate tectonics explains process that shape the geosphere that are essential to How the Earth System Works. Click the image on the left to open the Understanding Global Change Infographic. Locate the plate tectonics icon and identify other Earth system processes and phenomena that cause changes to, or are affected by, plate tectonics.

What is plate tectonics?

As the young Earth cooled, layers formed and the most dense materials (primarily iron) sank to the middle (the core) of the Earth. Around the core formed the less dense layer called the mantle, topped by a thin layer called the crust. There are two kinds of crust: oceanic crust, which is found in ocean basins and the continental crust we live on that is made of lighter material than oceanic crust (to learn more about rock types, see the rock cycle page).

Although the crust and mantle are different in density and composition, the crust is attached to the uppermost part of the mantle, together forming the solid lithosphere. The lithosphere is broken up into huge sections, called plates that include both oceanic and continental crust. Below the lithosphere is a layer called the asthenosphere, which is a portion of the mantle that is weaker and less rigid due to pressure and temperature conditions. The rigid lithosphere moves on the asthenosphere both horizontally and vertically. Plates are constantly in motion, and move about 3 cm (a little over an inch) per year because of slow convection currents in the mantle due to Earth's internal heat and pulling and pushing on the plates as they form, cool and sink back into the mantle. Through convection, hot regions of the asthenosphere heated from below rise closer to the surface, propelling the plates, and displace colder, denser material, which sinks back to lower parts of the mantle. Two additional processes, the sinking of old, cold and dense crust (slab pull), and the pushing of plates from ridges where plates form (ridge push), also contribute to plate movement.

Plates interact in three ways: 1) Plates move away from each other at what are called divergent boundaries (also known as spreading centers); 2) Plates move towards each other at convergent boundaries, where continents collide creating mountain ranges or one plate sinks beneath another plate at a subduction zones and can form volcanic arcs; 3) Plates slide past each other at transform boundaries creating strike-slip faults. The uplift and sinking of land, earthquakes (the sudden release of energy that causes shaking), and volcanic eruptions are all evidence of interactions and stress due to the movement of the plates. Plate motion may seem slow, but over millions of years plate tectonics shapes the distribution of continents and oceans and mountain ranges that shape diverse ecosystems and influence global climate.

Earth system models about plate tectonics

This Earth system model is one way to represent the essential processes that are related to plate tectonics, including Earth's internal heat and the rock cycle. Hover over the icons for brief explanations; click on the icons to learn more about each topic. Download the Earth system models on this page.

Plate tectonics shapes global landforms and environments through the rock cycle, mountain building, volcanism, and the distribution of continents and oceans. These phenomena, ultimately driven by Earth's internal heat, have far-reaching effects on other parts of the Earth system, including the sea level experienced along coastlines.

How human activities are influenced by plate tectonics

Where and how humans live can be greatly affected by phenomena influenced by tectonic processes. Hover over or click on the icons to learn more about these Earth system connections.

Explore the Earth System

Click the icons and bolded terms (e.g. volcanism, rock cycle, etc.) on this page to learn more about these process and phenomena. Alternatively, explore the Understanding Global Change Infographic and find new topics that are of interest and/or locally relevant to you.

To learn more about teaching the plate tectonics, visit the Teaching Resources page.

Links to Learn More

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Plate Tectonics - Understanding Global Change

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Seashells in rocks on mountain tops, underwater mountain chains, and continents that look like giant pieces of a global puzzle provide evidence that Earth's continents and seafloors move and change over time. The theory of plate tectonics explains processes in the geosphere that are fueled by Earth's internal heat that have operated over billions of years.

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This resource covered many of the topics through senior science, however it also contains some great reading and worksheet material. It would work very well when used as a formative assessment tool to gauge the students understanding of the overall topic.

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Another great interactive activity that allows students to see the tectonic plates and the impact of their movement. Scootles resources show the way convergent, divergent, and transformative plates brush against one another on a real world map.

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The Earth's crust and upper mantle are broken into pieces called tectonic plates. This map shows the major tectonic plates. The plates are constantly moving.

In this activity, you will investigate the boundaries between them. You'll see how energy released by the separation,
collision or sliding of plates affects the Earth's surface.
Acknowledgements
Please refer to Conditions of use.

The photograph of a fence offset by the San Andreas Fault during the earthquake in San Francisco, California, 18 April 1906 by Grove K Gilbert has been reproduced by kind permission of the National Information Service for Earthquake Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Now let's move to a location in the Pacific Ocean.

There is a boundary between the Juan de Fuca plate and the Pacific plate at the highlighted spot on the map.

This is a map showing the Earth's major tectonic plates.

Select a location to investigate what sort of tectonic activity is occurring there.

Now select the correct term in each drop-down menu to describe the tectonic activity at this location.

Look at the list of geological features and events.

Select the ones that you think are most likely to occur at this location, then select Check.

The geological feature you have selected is incorrect.

None of the geological features you have selected are correct.

At least one of the geological features you have selected is incorrect.

You have not selected all the correct geological features.

Read them again carefully and see if you can find the rest.

You can select any activity at
the top of the screen to review information about tectonic plates.

Congratulations! You have completed this activity.

You have successfully investigated four of the many locations around the world where the movement of tectonic plates is shaping our physical world.

You have now completed all of the Tectonic boundaries activities. You can go back and review any of your completed activities, or start again.

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The Earth's crust and upper mantle are broken into pieces called tectonic plates. This map shows the major tectonic plates. The plates are constantly moving. In this activity, you will investigate the boundaries between them. You'll see how energy released by the separation, collision or sliding of plates affects the Earth's surface.

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Another incredible resource from Kate’s Padlet

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Another incredible resource from Kate’s Padlet

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As Kate stated, the amoeba sisters are an incredibly powerful resource in the classroom, their videos are informative and work very well when teaching junior science!

Link: https://youtube.com/@amoebasisters?si=ysJVgGvx8mxMSME9

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There is no better way to grab the attention of students than by using a catchy song. This addition is no exception, with the jaunty tune and catchy chorus, students will be throughly engaged and interested by the layers of the earth. This will also help with student’s recall as singing something helps move it to the long term memory.

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Another great classroom reading, this text would be great for a think pair share activity, having students read the text, pair with a partner and discuss each topic, and then share their thoughts. This could easily enhance students learning and implement the critical thinking general capability.

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Reading: Theory of Plate Tectonics | Geology

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When the concept of seafloor spreading came along, scientists recognized that it was the mechanism to explain how continents could move around Earth’s surface. Like the scientists before us, we will now merge the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading into the theory of plate tectonics.

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Through use of this resource students are given the opportunity to see what the forces of tectonic plates do to continents of their own creation. This encourages students to use higher order thinking skills and be creative in a way previous activities could not. this is a great tool for teachers who want to give their students the opportunity to learn independently.

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Curators insight into the benefits of this resource 

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Curators insight into the benefits of this resource 

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The PowerPoint discusses the importance of this resource