Plate Tectonics Explained
How do plate tectonics REALLY work? Please support us on Patreon at: http://www.patreon.com/minuteearth And subscribe! - http://www.youtube.com/user/minuteearth?sub_confirmation=1 Thanks...
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The idea that our planet’s continents drift around the globe, periodically glomming togetherand breaking apart, is at least 200 years old. But most geologists didn’t believeit until the 1960’s, when mounting evidence made it clear that the Earth’s crust isbroken up into fragments, and that those fragments, called tectonic plates, are moving. And thesedays we directly track that motion – with millimeter precision – from space.The common, simplified explanation for why tectonic plates are moving is that they’recarried along on currents in the upper mantle, the slowly flowing layer of rock just belowEarth’s crust. Converging currents drive plates into each other; diverging currentspull them apart.This is mostly true; hot mantle rock rises from the core and mov...
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The idea that our planet’s continents drift around the globe, periodically glomming togetherand breaking apart, is at least 200 years old. But most geologists didn’t believeit until the 1960’s, when mounting evidence made it clear that the Earth’s crust isbroken up into fragments, and that those fragments, called tectonic plates, are moving. And thesedays we directly track that motion – with millimeter precision – from space.The common, simplified explanation for why tectonic plates are moving is that they’recarried along on currents in the upper mantle, the slowly flowing layer of rock just belowEarth’s crust. Converging currents drive plates into each other; diverging currentspull them apart.This is mostly true; hot mantle rock rises from the core and mov...
