By, David Hill

• Born on Nov. 1, 1880.

•Made major advancements to the fields of geology, geophysics, oceanography and paleontology.

•Wrote a textbook called The Origin of Continents and Oceans

•Came up with theory of continental drift

•Proposed that there was a super-continent called Pangaea.

•1912- Alfred Wegener introduced theory of continental drift.

•Said Earth’s continents are mobile and drifted apart.

•Noticed continents look like a jigsaw puzzle.

•Called the super continent Pangaea

530 Million Years Ago Current

•Plate tectonics is the geologic theory that Earth’s crust is made up of rigid, “floating,” plates.

•Theory was widely accepted in the 1960s.

•Plates cause faults and earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and the building of mountains.

•Tectonic plates are rigid slabs of rock.

•Earth is broken into layers.

•Thin outer portion of the Earth is called the crust.

•The mantle is solid at the top and is “soft” and melted at the bottom.

•The mantle stretches from 50-120 miles under the surface of the Earth.

•The crust and the rigid part of the mantle make the lithosphere.

•The lithosphere is broken into plates .

•Plates move by floating on the asthenosphere.

•There are eight major plates and several smaller ones.

•Convection current are the driving force for plate movement.

•Heat energy at the center of the planet (core) is carried to the surface via currents.

•The current cools at the surface and sink back toward the core.

•Below the crust, pressure is exerted on is exerted on the bottoms of the plates.•The pressure pushes the plates .

•There are three types of boundaries. They are convergent, divergent, and transform.

Convergent Boundaries•Convergent boundaries are the places where plates crash and crunch together.

•When the plates crash one plate folds and becomes a mountain range and the other plate subducts (bends and digs

into the earth).

Divergent Boundaries

•The place where two plates separate.

•The lithosphere is pulled apart and a rift is formed (valley).

Transform Boundaries•This is where plates slide past each other

•The most famous transform boundary is the San Andreas fault.

•My name is David

•I’m 14 years old

•I love cats!

•I have 19 year old tabby

•I have one brother named Scott who is 10 years old

•Finally, I can’t get enough of sports and WAKE FOREST!!!!!!!!

Bibliography“Rifts, Rafts and Hot Spot.” Kids Discover

Volcanoes. 8 Aug., 2004: 6-7.

“Plate Tectonics.” UXL Encyclopedia of

Science. Second Edition, 2002.

“Alfred Wegener (1880-1930).” UCMP. 1 May,

2005<http:// www.ucmp.berkely.

edu?history/wegener.html>.

“Plate Tectonics.” Apr. 28,

2005. Exploring the <http:// www.cotf.deu/ete/modules/mse