Plate boundaries

• Outer core

  Part of the Earth found above the mantle
• Mantle

  Semi-molten rock
• Slab pull


  When older, more dense crust sinks at subduction zones
• Destructive plate margins


  Margins where plates move together
• Constructive plate margins


  Margins where plates move apart
• Conservative plate margins


  Margins where plates move side by side
• Islands found above hot spots

  • Hawaii
• Volcanoes

  • Occur at constructive and destructive plate margins
• Subduction


  When the oceanic plate is forced beneath the continental plate
• Continental crust


  Found under land masses and continents
• The Earth's structure


  • Inner core (solid iron and nickel, up to 5,500°C)
  • Outer core (liquid iron and nickel)
  • Mantle (semi-molten rock/magma)
  • Crust (thin solid rock layer, 0-60km thick)
• Continental crust


  The surface of the Earth's crust found underneath large land masses
• Oceanic crust


  The surface of the Earth's crust found underneath the oceans, forming the ocean floor
• Tectonic plates


  A set of adjacent, slow-moving plates which make up the Earth's crust
• Mechanisms driving plate movement

  1. Slab pull (older, denser plates sinking into mantle)

  2. Ridge push (new crust at divergent plate margins is less dense, rises to form ridges)
• Evidence suggests it is the plates that drive the convection currents in the mantle, not the other way around
• Plate tectonics


  The movement of the Earth's plates and the activity inside the Earth
• Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions affect people all over the world, and are caused by the movement of tectonic plates
• Tectonic hazards can destroy buildings, infrastructure and cause deaths
• Oceanic crust


  The surface of the Earth's crust found underneath the oceans, forming the ocean floor
• Continental crust


  The surface of the Earth's crust found underneath large land masses
• Oceanic crust


  • Denser than continental crust
  • Can be subducted
• Continental crust


  • Generally older than oceanic crust
  • Less often destroyed
• Earthquakes are found along all types of plate margins
• Volcanoes only occur at constructive and destructive plate margins
• Ring of fire


  A group of volcanoes located along the plate margin of the Pacific plate
• Hawaii


  An arc of volcanic islands, found above a hot spot
• What does destructive plate margins usually involve?

  Oceanic plate and continental plate
• does volcanoes and earthquake occur at destructive plate margin?


  Yes.
• What is subduction?


  The process of one tectonic plate sliding beneath another.
• Where does a composite volcano occur?

  Destructive plate margin
• What are the three main types of plate boundaries?

  Destructive, Constructive and conservative plate boundaries
• What is a collision margin?

  two continental plates collide, neither can sink and so the land buckles upwards to form fold mountains.
• What disaster can a collision margin do?

  Earthquake
• What is constructive plate boundary? A plate boundary where two plates are moving apart from each other
• What happens after a constructive plate boundary?

  the magma from the mantle rises up to make (or construct) new land in the form of a shield volcano.
• What are conservative plate margin?


  Areas between two crustal plates that are moving past each other in opposite directions or at different speeds.
• What event could happen after a conservative plate margin?

  Earthquake
• How destructive are the earthquakes after a conservative plate margin?

  The earthquakes at a conservative plate boundary can be very destructive as they occur close to the Earth's surface.