UNIT- Plate Tectonics
Introduction
This unit will give students …
The Plate Tectonics unit aims to:
Understanding how and why the continents were once joined and have since moved
apart. This can be explained through the location of volcanoes and the theory of
plate tectonics
KEY SKILLS
The Key Skills that students will improve during the completion of this unit
are:
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Explain the difference between the theories of continental drift and plate
tectonics
Demonstrate how to determine the strength of an earthquake (seismometer)
Understand the causes of movements of the Earth’s crust
Describe the reasons why Australia does not have many earthquake yet New
Zealand does
Make connections between folding and faulting and the formation of fossil
fuel and mineral resources
Explain the benefits and consequences of living near a volcano
KEY KNOWLEDGE
The Key Knowledge that students will gain from this unit include:
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The earth was a supercontinent called Pangaea. Gondwana was the name of
the southern part of the continent (Antarctica, S. America, Africa, Oceania and
India)
The inner structure of the earth is made up of many layers: crust, mantle,
outer core, inner core
Tectonic plates do not stay still and have slowly shaped the oceans and
landscapes over millions of years
An earthquake occurs when the stresses caused by plate movements are
released.
Volcanoes can be active, dormant or extinct.
KEY TERMS
The Key Terms that students will become familiar with the definition and
spelling of during this unit are:
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Plate tectonics
Continental
plate
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Oceanic plate
Continental
drift
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Pangaea
(supercontinen
t)
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Gondwana
Earthquakes
Mantle
Magma
Subduction
zones
Fold
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Ricter
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Fault
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Rift valley
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Epicenter
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Convection
currents
UNIT RESOURCES AVAILABLE
1. Heinemann Science Links 3 - Chapter 6 – The Earth’s Moving
Crust
2. Science Dimensions 3 – Chapter 5 – The Fragile Crust
POSSIBLE ASSESSMENT TASKS INCLUDE
1. Written Test
2. Creative Project (Science Dimensions 3 text, pg 50)
Darwin, an outer suburb of Hong Kong!
All the tectonic plates are moving faster than ever before. What would have
taken millions of years is now happening in a single day. Australia’s northwest coast is heading
for the underbelly of China: Darwin and Hong Kong
are to join.
You are the information officer for the State Emergency Services and have the
job of providing information to the citizens of Darwin. You must:
• describe why the plates are shifting
• describe what the climate will do
• describe what events can be expected before the collision
• describe what will happen once the continents collide
• supply a list of relatively safe cities in Australia and overseas to evacuate
to Be imaginative, but base all descriptions on what you know about
tectonic plates. Present your work in one of the following forms:
• a pamphlet to be dropped in all letterboxes
• a script for an announcement by the prime minister to the people of
Darwin
• an imovie community announcement for TV
• a role play of a scientist visiting Year 9 students in Darwin
3. Practical Experiment (Heinemann Science Links 3, pg 167)
Modelling Faults and Folds
4. Practical Experiment (Heinemann Science Links 3, pg 180)
Making a model volcanic eruption