Name ____________________________
Class __________
Date of Test _______________
Plate Tectonics: Unit Study Sheet
Directions: Follow the story and fill in the blanks with words or phrases from
your notes. Be sure to highlight key words/phrases that you had difficulty
with or had to use your notes for and study those further.
Chapter 1: What are these plates?
Bill and Jane were looking at a map one day. Bill noticed that South America
and Africa seemed to fit together. Jane thought the same thing, so the two of
them went to ask Mrs. Finkleboat why this might happen. Mrs. Finkleboat told
them that a man named ___________ ____________ had noticed the same
thing. He then found other evidence in the forms of continental climates and
_____________ of prehistoric creatures that made him develop the Theory of
_______________ __________. He thought that the continents once formed a
super continent called, _____________, and that continent split apart millions of
years ago into the continents that we see today. But he didn’t know why?
This story made Bill and Jane curious and they wanted to know more. Mrs.
Finkleboat had an idea and told the students to hop onto her magic pencil
sharpener. The two students and their teacher got on the pencil sharpener and
took a journey into the earth. They began in the __________ ___________, the
middle made of super-hot metals that were so pressurized they stayed
____________. Next they went to the ____________ ___________ that had
a little less pressure and was kind of liquidy. During their trip to the largest layer,
the _______________, the kids discovered that the liquid in the first layer
moved them in a circle. Mrs. Finkleboat explained that this was called a
________________ ________________. The hot molten material is heated by
the core and _____________. Then, as it reaches the top, it cools and sinks back
________________.
Suddenly there was a loud noise as something moved above them. At the top
of this layer, pieces of rock were moving! The students watched as pieces that
moved toward each other crushed together and formed ___________________
and other pieces moved under another piece and formed what looked like a
_____________________. Mrs. Finkleboat explained that these were tectonic
plates and the ones that moved together to form mountains and volcanoes were
called ___________________ ________________ because the plates moved
toward each other. Unexpectedly another shift occurred and two plates began
moving away from each other. Their teacher told them that this is called a
__________________ ________________ and usually forms long under water
______________, thousands of miles long. Just as Bill and Jane thought the
movement had ended, they heard a loud scraping noise and a sharp jerk that made
the crust look like it was breaking. Rocks crumbled all around. Mrs. Finkleboat
explained that this was yet another boundary, a ____________ _____________,
where many __________________ happen. The students were amazed that the
_____________ ________________ in the mantle could make so much happen
to the Earth. Bill suddenly had a thought that this was what made the continents
split apart so long ago. Mrs. Finkleboat congratulated him on his quick thinking and
told him that this theory, the Theory of _____________ ________________
was what helped support Wegner’s idea that the continents moved.
The students and their teacher traveled back to the classroom where they
began to look deeper into this idea.
Chapter 2: Changes on Earth’s Surface
When Bill and Jane returned to the classroom they started looking at a
globe and some maps. Jane noticed that every place where the plates moved
_________________ seemed to form mountains or volcanoes. However, she also
noticed that volcanoes seemed to also occur where plates did not meet. Her
teacher explained that those volcanoes formed underwater ______________
chains and volcanic islands because of __________ ____________. This was
where a plate moved over a super-____________ plume that rose from the center
of the earth and created volcanoes. The volcanoes erupted; the magma cooled and
kept forming layers and layers of rock until it rose above the ocean.
Because the students seemed so interested, Mrs. Finkleboat decided to take
them on another journey. They hopped aboard the magic pencil sharpener and
were suddenly between two large rocks. They were _________________
____________! As the plates moved away from each other, Bill and Jane noticed
that the rocks broke away and ______________ welled up from the mantle.
Their teacher explained that this was because of the ___________ on the rocks,
places where rocks are pulled apart until they break. She said this type of stress
can cause a _____________ fault in Earth’s crust and can form large rift valleys.
Just like that, the plates moved towards each other and began to push upward.
The rocks crumbled upward and formed ____________________. It was just
like what the Himalayas looked like! Mrs. Finkleboat said that this type of collision
caused a stress on the rocks called ____________________ and that this
caused a ______________ fault to form. Finally, the two plates began to scrape
past each other and the ground began to rumble! Bill and Jane noticed that the
rocks broke away as they scraped past. This type of scraping caused an
____________________. Mrs. Finkleboat told them that this type of boundary
occurs at the San Andraeas Fault. The two plates slide past, creating a
______________ stress and causing the plates to slip past each other, or form a
_____________________ fault. The students were amazed and wondered what
this meant for how the mountains around their home in Pennsylvania were formed.
The magic pencil sharpener took the students back in time and suddenly they
were at the collision of the North American and African plates. Both were pushing
together at a convergent boundary and causing mountains to form. Bill and Jane
saw all of the mountains form: the __________________, the
__________________, the _______________ and the __________________.
The students were tired and so the three of them went back to the
classroom on their magic pencil sharpener.
Chapter 3: Rocks
Bill and Jane had learned a lot about how the earth was made and what was
going on around them. As they were playing outside, Jane threw a rock and hit Bill
in the head. Bill started crying but noticed the mark in his head had different
layers in it where the rock had hit. They took it into the classroom and showed
Mrs. Finkleboat. She told him that Jane had hit him with a _________________
rock. This rock was made deep within the earth’s crust where there was so much
__________________ that it compacted it into different layers.
Jane and Bill were curious now and went out to find some more rocks. Jane
came back in with another rock that looked like it had many particles in it. Mrs.
Finkleboat told them that this was a _____________________ rock that had
been formed when many small pieces of sediment were pressed together. This
happened over time as ______________ and _____________ wore away at
other rocks. Bill showed her his rock that looked as if it had shot out of a volcano
with all of its interesting pieces. Their teacher explained that his was an igneous
rock. She told them that ____________________ rocks were made when lava or
magma cooled. The ___________________ igneous rocks were formed when
magma cooled within the earth and they could tell these by the fact that the rocks
had large crystals where the magma cooled more _________. _______________
igneous rocks were formed when lava cooled above Earth’s surface and were easily
identified by the small crystals where the lava cooled ______________--.
Bill and Jane were thrilled! They had been through so much and learned a
bunch! Mrs. Finkleboat returned to her grading and set the magic pencil sharpener
on her desk to use another day.
The End