Name___________________
Pangea
The Earth’s crust is made up of 8 different parts called tectonic plates. These tectonic plates crash
into each other forming mountains, volcanoes, and other geological formations. Geological
formations are formations created by the Earth’s natural movement such as rivers, valleys, and
mountains. Earthquakes, mountains, and volcanoes all form between 2 different plates. This is
because the earthquake or mountain is created by the two plates colliding. The area between two
plates is called a fault, or fault line. The mountains and volcanoes do not form in the middle of the
plate only on the edges.
The movement of the continents over time is called continental drift. Continental drift is considered
a theory because we were not there when it happened, but there is a strong amount of evidence that
supports continental drift. One reason scientists believe the continents have moved is because of
fossil evidence. The same fossils can be from in lower south America and in lower Africa. This would
mean dinosaurs traveled by land between the two continents at one point. The continents also look
like they could fit together in an almost perfect way
There are 3 different kinds of tectonic plate boundaries and that cause different things.
Convergent tectonic plate boundaries -cause mountains and volcanoes to grow because the two tectonic
plates are running into each other.
Divergent tectonic plate boundaries – when two plates split in opposite directions, magma rises from the
Earth’s mantle and creates new crust for the Earth.
Transform tectonic plate boundaries – these boundaries grind against each others sides creating a lot of
friction, this causes earthquakes. Transform boundaries cause earthquakes.
The Earth’s four layers are listed in the previous picture. The Earth’s layers get hotter and hotter as you
get closer to the center of the Earth. The center of the Earth has temperatures as hot as the sun.
The 3 reasons the earth is hot on the inside.
1. The center of the Earth is still hot from when the planet formed 4.5 billion years ago.
2. The Earth is always moving inside. The friction of the Earth’s movements create an enormous amount of
heat.
3. Uranium is being split at the center of the earth essentially causing nuclear explosions to constantly go off.
The ring of fire – a place on the earth that typically has many volcanoes.
On the map you can tell how volcanoes tend to occur along the fault lines. This is because volcanoes are
formed between two convergent boundaries. Mountains also form between 2 convergent boundaries.
Earthquakes also occur between plate boundaries, since the ring of fire is located between plate
boundaries this causes many mountains, earthquakes and volcanoes to form at the ring of fire. 75 percent
of the world’s volcanoes are on the ring of fire.
Here are tectonic plates on a map with the ring of fire labeled in red. The lines show where the fault lines
are between the plates. Mountains, earthquakes, and volcanoes form on a faultline (between two plates).
How the Himalayas Were Formed
How the Himalayas were formed. – The himalays are a mountain range in asia.
The Himalayas, which stretch some 2,900 kilometres between India, Pakistan, China, and
Nepal, is the world’s tallest mountain range. In addition to Mount Everest, the world’s tallest
mountain by peak elevation standing at 8,848 meters tall, the range also features several other
mountain peaks over 8,000 meters. It is the only mountain range to boast mountains over 8,000
meters—the runner-up is a mountain range in South America, whose tallest peak is just 6,962
meters tall.
Millions of years ago, these mountain peaks didn’t exist. The Asian continent was mostly intact,
but India was an island floating off the coast of Australia. Around 220 million years ago, around
the time that Pangea was breaking apart, India started to move northwards. It travelled some
6,000 kilometres before it finally collided with Asia around 40 to 50 million years ago. Then, part
of the Indian landmass began to go beneath the Asian one, moving the Asian landmass up,
which resulted in the rise of the Himalayas. It’s thought that India’s coastline was denser and
more firmly attached to the seabed, which is why Asia’s softer soil was pushed up rather than
the other way around.The Himalayas were formed by 2 plates colliding against each other in
convergent boundaries.
The mountain range grew very rapidly in comparison to most mountain ranges, and it’s actually
still growing today. Mount Everest and its fellows actually grow by approximately a net of about a
centimetre or so every year. That’s in comparison to the Appalachian Mountains, which
developed some 300 million years ago or more, which is actually decreasing (getting shorter) in
peak elevations as it erodes.
The continued growth in the Himalayas is likely due to the Indian tectonic plate still moving
slowly but surely northward. We know the plate is still moving in part because of the frequent
earthquakes in the region.
Now, if you do the math, you’d find that if the Himalayas had been growing at the current rate for
40 million years, they should be about 400 km tall! Once the infrastructure was in place, this
would have given us a much cheaper way to put things into low Earth orbit and beyond. (For
reference, the International Space Station typically orbits at between 300 km to 400 km.)
India merging into Asia became the accepted theory about how the Himalayas were formed
around 1912. That’s when Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, came up with the “Theory
of Continental Drift” which gave us our first ideas about Pangea, tectonic plates, and the thought
that continents were moving away from or closer to each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egEGaBXG3Kg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVOOo_BjhXA
metamorphic rocks – form very, very deep down under the earth. The immense amount of pressure
causes these rocks to change from one type to another.
Igneous rocks – these rocks form from magma that has cooled off. Magma is lava under the earth’s
surface.
Sedimentary rocks – form by mixing many small rocks together and packing them tight like a rock
version of a snowball. Sedimentary rocks often look like layers of different colored rocks like an ice
cream cone.
These are both sedimentary rocks
Name_________________________________
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7.
What are tectonic plates?
How do mountains form?
How do volcanoes form?
How do earthquakes form?
What are geological formations?
What are fault lines?
Do mountains and volcanoes form at the middle of the tectonic plate or at the
bordeers/edges
8. Give 2 examples of geological formations
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2.
9. Why is continental drift considered a theory?
10. What is continental drift.
11. What is one piece of evidence or proof that we have that continental drift
happens?
12. How does the fossil evidence prove that continental drift occurred?
13. Draw the picture of the different continents and color or use a pencil to shade
where the different dinosaur bones were found.
14. Draw divergent boundaries
15. Draw convergent boundaries
16. Draw transform boundaries
17. Describe convergent boundaries
18. Describe divergent boundaries
19. Describe transform boundaries
20. What 2 geological formations occur between convergent tectonic plate
boundaries
21. What happens when divergent tectonic plate boundaries split
22. What happens between transform tectonic plate boundaries
23. Draw the earth and label the 4 layers of the earth below.
24. Do the earth’s layers get hotter or cooler as you get closer to the center of the
earth.
25. Which layer of the earth is as hot as the sun.
26. Name the first reason why the earth is hot on the inside.
27. Name the second reason why the earth is hot on the inside.
28. Name the third reason why the earth is hot on the inside.
29. What is the ring of fire?
30. What percentage of volcanoes are there in the ring of fire?
31. What are the Himalayas?
32. Knowing what you know about how mountains formed how do you think the
Himalayan mountains formed?
33. What is the world’s tallest mountain?
34. Was India ever an island?
35. How much does mount everest grow every year?
36. Are the Appalachian mountains growing or shrinking?
37. Why are the Himalayan mountains still growing?
38. How are metamorphic rocks formed?
39. How are igneous rocks formed?
40. What is magma?
41. How are sedimentary rocks formed
42. Draw the two different pictures of sedimentary rocks below.
43. Draw the ring of fire and the continents below. If you have colored pencils
draw the ring of fire in red.