Plate Tectonics Lab Questions PDF

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Plate Tectonics ...

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Environmental Geology

Plate Tectonics Lab

http://www.sepuplhs.org/middle/iaes/students/simulations/sepup_plate_motion.html

1. Describe what is going on in the simulation between the two plates a. What type of boundary is this? This is a convergent plate boundary. 2. What is being produced by the movement of the plates?

a. When the plates began to move, it caused the land to begin to shift. After twenty million years, there was a mountain range that began to form. 3. Could this be what produced some of the mountains in Arkansas? If so, which range? Which plates were involved? I believe that this is what created the range in Arkansas. The range is called Ouachita and Ozark. What I have found when researching is that the North American and South American plates were the reason that the Range was created.

As the simulation ends a box in the window will appear that reads "What if two Oceanic plates collide?" Click on this box and choose time as 20 million years again. Click run. 4. Describe what is going on in the simulation between the two plates? They are pushing against each other, and the plate that is located under the ocean gets pushed underneath the plate with dry land. When this happens, melting rock begins to form, as well as many volcanoes. 5. What is being produced by the movement of the plates?

Volcanoes! After the simulation is over, click the "Home" key

Now, choose the arrow on the outside of plate 1. Both the arrow on plate one and plate two should now be highlighted in red. Click "See plates over time". Choose time as 20 million years again. Click run. 6. Describe what is happening paying close attention to the very beginning of the simulation. What is the first thing you see according to the legend? The land begins to spread apart, causing water to fill the area between the two plates. The plates are also thinning out causing lava to be able to reach through the continental lithosphere. This causes volcanoes to appear in the water. a. What type of boundary is this? This is a Divergent Boundary. 7. What is the end product of the simulation? The end product is that the two plates separated and when water filled the area between the two plates, volcanoes began forming.

8. Name a region of the globe that was created in the same manner as the product of the simulation. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise Click "Home". Now click on the arrow at the top of plate 1. Both the arrow on plate 1 and plate 2 should now be highlighted in red.

Click "See plates over time" setting time at 20 million years once more. Click run.

1. What is going on in the simulation? In the simulation, the plates are moving against each other and it caused the river to change and an abandoned riverbed to form. It was caused by a Transformed Boundary. 2. Look closely at the river in the beginning of the simulation. What has happened to it? It caused the river to change shape and it continued until water found a new direction and it caused the original river path to dry up creating an abandoned riverbed.

Finally, discuss what affect plate tectonics would have on the environment at a local level. Discuss the economic and natural impacts. I think that it would affect many things at the local level such as inner cities, businesses, houses, and school. It could potentially destroy all of that. I think it would affect economically by causing an inflation of prices that would be needed to fix the damage caused by natural disasters. I also think that it would cause many natural impacts such as craters from the plate vault lines and it could also cause ridges to begin forming. Type your answers into a formal Word document including cropped compressed images of your simulation and upload to the dropbox....