Name:
Class Period:
Earth Science Web Quest Part 1:
The History of the Earth & Plate Tectonics
Instructions: Answer the following questions using the internet. You must write the name or URL of each
website you use next to each question. If you use a website for more than one question, you do not have to
rewrite it each time. Refer back to the first number you used that website for. (Do not cite Wikipedia… use its
citation section to find reliable sources.) You may work with a partner to complete this activity.
Website Name or URL
Questions
1.
1. According to current scientific theory, how old is the Earth?
2.
2. What are two methods scientists use to determine the age of the Earth?
3.
3. What was Earth like about 3.8 billion years ago?
4.
4. How many supercontinents do scientists think existed on the Earth
throughout its history? (Start with Pangea and work backwards.)
5.
5. What was Earth’s climate like during the age of the dinosaurs?
6.
6. What evidence do we have for this? List and describe at least two pieces of
evidence.
7.
7. Who came up with the plate tectonics hypothesis?
8.
8. How did his contemporaries initially react to his hypothesis?
9.
9. Which plate is Kentucky on? Which direction is it moving?
10.
10. Define plate tectonics according to current scientific theory.
11.
11. The Rocky Mountains might be taller than the Appalachians, but the
Appalachians are much older. What kind of plate interaction formed the
Appalachian Mountains?
12.
12. The Appalachian Mountains used to be much taller than the Rocky
Mountains. What happened?
13.
13. Is California really going to “fall into the ocean” at the San Andreas Fault?
What is really going to happen to California in the next few hundred million
years?
14.
14. Draw a picture of oceanic crust sliding under (subducting) continental crust.
Label your diagram with at least following words: ocean crust, continental
crust, trench, melted rock, and volcano.
15.
15. Draw a picture of the layers of the Earth today. Label your diagram with the
words crust, mantle, inner core, outer core, lithosphere, and
asthenosphere.