Scientists still debate over which of these forces has the greatest effect on plate motion.
Convection currents in the mantle
produce a force that causes motion called basal drag. … Rising mantle material at mid-ocean ridges creates the potential for plates to move away from the ridge with a force(ridge push).
What is the most likely cause of plate movement?
The internal heat of the earth
is the most likely cause of plate movement; this heat is probably generated by the decay of radioactive minerals. The entire surface of the earth is moving, and each plate is moving in a different direction than any other.
What are the effects of plate movements?
The impact of the colliding plates
can cause the edges of one or both plates to buckle up into a mountain ranges or one of the plates may bend down into a deep seafloor trench
. A chain of volcanoes often forms parallel to convergent plate boundaries and powerful earthquakes are common along these boundaries.
What is likely the greatest driver of plate motion?
Explanation:
The heat produced in the interior of the earth
is thought to be the driving force behind plate tectonics. That heat creates convections currents that can be observed in volumes of air and liquid is a known fact. There is substantial evidence that heat is produced in the core and mantle of the earth.
What are the 3 causes of plate movement?
Mantle dynamics, gravity, and Earth’s rotation taken
altogether causes the plate movements. However, convectional currents are the general thought for the motion.
What are the major causes and effects of plate movement?
The force that causes most of the plate movement is
thermal convection
, where heat from the Earth’s interior causes currents of hot rising magma and cooler sinking magma to flow, moving the plates of the crust along with them.
What causes the movement of the plate?
The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior
causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion, or tectonic shift.
What is most possible when the Earth’s plates slide past each other?
When oceanic or continental plates slide past each other in opposite directions, or move in the same direction but at different speeds,
a transform fault boundary
is formed. No new crust is created or subducted, and no volcanoes form, but earthquakes occur along the fault.
What is the average rate of plate movement?
They move at a rate of
one to two inches (three to five centimeters) per year
.
Does Earth become smaller or bigger when plates move?
New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth’s surface. But
the Earth isn’t getting any bigger
.
What happens when two plates collide?
If two tectonic plates collide, they form
a convergent plate boundary
. Usually, one of the converging plates will move beneath the other, a process known as subduction. … The new magma (molten rock) rises and may erupt violently to form volcanoes, often building arcs of islands along the convergent boundary.
How fast do tectonic plates move?
They can move at
rates of up to four inches (10 centimeters) per year
, but most move much slower than that. Different parts of a plate move at different speeds. The plates move in different directions, colliding, moving away from, and sliding past one another. Most plates are made of both oceanic and continental crust.
What will happen if tectonic plates continue to move?
One big problem with plate tectonics stopping is that plate motion is the mechanism by which Earth is cooling down and getting rid of its internal heat. If the plates stopped moving, the planet would have to
find a new and efficient
means to blow off this heat.
Why Some plates are moving faster than others?
It means that it is the
subducting plate
which controls the velocity of the plate’s movement. And the rate at which a plate sinks depends mostly on its age/temperature/density: older plates are cooler/denser, thus they sink at a higher velocity than younger plates.
What are the lines of evidence that support the plate movement?
There is variety of evidence that supports the claims that plate tectonics accounts for
(1) the distribution of fossils on different continents
, (2) the occurrence of earthquakes, and (3) continental and ocean floor features including mountains, volcanoes, faults, and trenches.
What are the five effects of plate tectonics?
Explain how
rock formations, geologic environments, mineral resources, volcanoes and their eruptions, landforms, mountain building processes, climate change, evolution, folds, faults and earthquakes
relate to and are affected by plate tectonics. [Insert brief introductory statement here.]
