Student Misconceptions
About Earth’s Structure and Plate Tectonics
References: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/intro/misconception_list.html
Students may confuse the concepts of tectonic plates, Earth’s crust, continents, and lithosphere;
for instance, students may mistakenly assume that each continent is a tectonic plate, and that
the boundaries for the plate are always the edges of the continent.
Many students mistakenly assume that the mantle is liquid, and that it is always the direct
source for volcanism, rather than a magma chamber.
Students may mistakenly assume that only continents move.
Students may mistakenly assume that ocean ridges are due to vertical uplift or convergent plate
boundaries, rather than divergent plates.
Many students have heard of Pangea and mistakenly assume that Earth started with this single
supercontinent, and that the present oceans only began as Pangea broke apart.
Students may mistakenly assume that oceans create oceanic crust (rather than being closer to
other way round).
Students may mistakenly confuse a plate boundary with the plate itself; for example, they may
say that a plate has to be divergent or convergent.