Essential Question 1: What is special about the Earth that
allows plate tectonics to occur?
**Explore the following websites and answer the 20 questions in your NB.
Part I: The Layers of Earth
D) Speaking of digging through the Earth… go to
http://www.livephysics.com/simulations/mechanics-sim/dig-hole-earth/
1) Is digging through the Earth possible?
2) If it is, where would we end up?
(If you started digging from Alexandria, MN)
A) Go to this link: The Volcano World
Part II: Convection Currents and the Mantle
After reading each slide click the "next" button to proceed and
read the next one. Use this information to answer/complete the
questions below.
Heat transfer is the movement of heat from a warmer object to a
cooler object. There are three ways in which heat can be
transferred; conduction, convection and/or radiation. Click on the
following two links and answer the questions below.
http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/education/vwlessons/lessons/Earths_layers/Earths_layers2.html
1) Draw & label four layers of the earth.
2) What causes the mantle to "flow"? (see the 6th slide)
3) What are the two main metals that make up the
outer and inner core?
4) Describe in your own words how the earth's layers were
formed. (the 1st slide - “The Four Layers” should help you.)
B ) Go to The Earth's Interior
http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/platetectonics/1.php
using sentences OR labeled drawings.
. Answer these questions
1) How is Earth's interior like an apple?
2) The lithosphere is divided into 2 parts (or crusts).
a. What are the 2 crusts called?
b. What are the thicknesses of each crust?
c. What is each crust made of?
C ) Go to Layers of the Earth webpage (5 pages )
http://www.sciencemonster.com/earth-science/layers-of-the-earth.html
1) What are tectonic plates?
2) What is something else that you learned from pgs 1-3
A) Go to Convection, Conduction and Radiation & Heat Transfer
1)
2)
3)
4)
How is heat transferred by conduction?
Explain the process of convection.
How is heat transferred by radiation?
If air is a fluid, why isn't convection responsible for
transferring heat to Earth from the sun?
B) Go to the top of the Heat Transfer Web page and take
the "Mini-Quiz".Write down the QUESTIONS & answers.
C) Go to www.universetoday.com/26717/earths-mantle/ to
learn about what influence convection currents have on Earth.
Read and answer the questions that follow.
1) Describe how convection currents occur in Earth's
mantle.
2) What is a constructive force caused by the convection
currents in the earth's mantle?
3) What is a destructive force caused by the convection
currents in the earth's mantle?