Name:___________________________________________ Date:_______________ Period:_______________
Inquiry 15.1 - Using a Simple Model of Plate Movement
Before You Start: Compare and contrast the physical properties of the two pads (density, appearance, thickness, size):
BLACK
BLUE
Directions: Read the procedure Steps 1 - 7 on pg. 172-73 of your textbook and record what happens when each type of
force is applied:
Actual Response to Applied Forces (Write or draw what happened)
FORCES
BLACK
BLUE
Pulled from
Opposite Ends
FORCES
Pushed at
Opposite Ends
Toward the
Center
FORCES
Sliding Past
Each Other
BLACK
BLACK/BLACK
BLUE
BLUE/BLUE
BLACK/BLUE
Colliding
(have desk
10cm apart)
Reflecting on what you’ve done:
1) How did the pads behave when pulled form opposite ends? ______________________________________________
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2) How did the pads behave when compressed? _________________________________________________________
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3) If oceanic plates are colder, denser, and thinner than continental plates are, which pad do you think represented
oceanic plates? Which pad represented oceanic plates? _________________________________________________
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4) How did the density of the pads affect the way they behaved when you made them collide?
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5) When do colliding plates on earth the form mountains? _________________________________________________
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6) When do colliding plates on the earth form trenches? __________________________________________________
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7) Why would a more dense oceanic plate slide under a less dense continental plate? ___________________________
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8) Can plates ever move without forming new land? If so, when? ____________________________________________
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9) How do you think colliding plates on the earth cause earthquakes? ________________________________________
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Read Colliding, Sliding and Separating Plate on pages 174-175 of your textbook and answer the following questions:
1) What happens at a plate boundary where two plates slide past one another?
Energy builds up in the rock as it compresses or twists, when the force gets too great, the rock breaks and an
earthquake may occur.
2) Compare continental and oceanic plates:
Continental plates are much thicker but less dense, they contain the Earth’s continents. Oceanic plates are thinner
but more dense than continental plates.
3) What happens when two continental plates collide?
When two continental plates collide their edges crumple upward forming mountains.
4) What happens when a continental and an oceanic plate collide?
When a continental and an oceanic plate collide, the more dense oceanic plate will slide under the continental
plate the bending of the sinking plate creates a valley or trench in the ocean floor, as the plate subducts it melts
into magma, which rises to the surface of the Earth to form volcanoes.
5) How does a spreading plate boundary (divergent plate boundary) form?
Hot rock flowing under the plate can cause it to split in two, the surface of the plate thins and fractures along the
newly formed spreading plate boundary. Rising melted rock heats up the crust causing it to bulge outward
forming a ridge, if water enters to form an ocean, it is called a mid-ocean ridge.
6) What landforms may form at a divergent plate boundary?
A Mid-Ocean ridge