HOW THE THEORY OF PLATE DEVELOPED

In 1912 Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) noticed the same thing and proposed that the continents were once compressed into a single proto continent which he called Pangaea and over time they have drifted apart into their current distribution. He believed that Pangaea was intact until the late carboniferous period, about 300 million years ago, when it began to break up and drift apart. However, Wegener hypothesis lacked a geological mechanism to explain how the continents could drift across the earth’s surface as he proposed. Continental drift was originally proposed by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, in 1912. According to the theory, surface of the earth is broken into large plates. The size and position of these plates change over time. The edges of these plates, where they move against each other, are sites of intense geologic activity, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.

HOW PLATE TECTONICS ACCOUNTS FOR THE FEATURES AND PROCESS THAT GEOSCIENTISTS OBSERVE IN THE EARTH

The earth’s features are constantly changing, some of these changes are immediate and some are not immediate. Wind and water erode away mountains and hills. Ice and heat break apart rocks. Rivers cut new valleys and dams form new lakes. Volcanoes and earth form new mountains and hills. Wind and water combine to build sand dunes and then turn around and erode them away. There are many different types of features on earth's surface due to the complexity of our planet. The surface is unique from the other planets because it is the only one which has liquids water in such large quantities. Thus water forms rivers, oceans, beaches and lakes. Mountains, earthquakes and volcanoes, are formed when large pieces of the earth's outer layer move slowly by plate tectonics.

THE NATURE OF THE EARTH'S INTERIOR

The earth is divided into three chemical layers: the core, the mantle and the crust. The core is divided into two layers: a solid inner core and a liquid outer core. Within the mantle lie two subdivisions, upper and lower mantle. There are two types of crust, oceanic and continental.

The flow of matter and enegry in the Earth

Matter is everything around you. Matter is everything made of atoms and molecules. Matter is anything that has a mass and occupies space. All particles of matter are in constant motion. Matter can flow through the geosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. Energy is the abilty to do work. Convection is the transfer of heat by actual movemnt of the warmed matter.conduction is the transfer of energy through matter from particle to particle. It is the transfer and distribution of heat energy through matter from atom to atom within a substance.

Evidence For Movement and Changes In the Geosphere Over Time

     The geosphere is the solid earth that includes continental and oceanic crust as well as the various layers of the earth's enterior. The geosphere is not static, but it's surface (crust) is in a constant state of motion that gives rise to movement of the continents. A changein position relative to a frame of referance.