The theory of plate tectonics attributes the movement of massive sections of the EarthвЂ™s outer layers with creating earthquakes, mountains, and volcanoes. The concept of plate tectonics was just as revolutionary for geology. Albert EinsteinвЂ™s relativity and quantum mechanics concepts in the early twentieth century did the same for Newtonian physics. Charles DarwinвЂ™s book on evolution, On the Origin of Species, published in 1859 Gregor MendelвЂ™s discovery of the genetic principles of inheritance in 1866 and James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind FranklinвЂ™s model for the structure of DNA in 1953 did that for biology. Several of these idea revolutions forced scientists to re-examine their entire field, triggering a paradigm shift that shook up their conventionally held knowledge. Explain how the tracks of hotspots, places that have continually rising magma, is used to calculate plate motionДetailed map of all known plates, their boundaries, and movements.Revolution is a word usually reserved for significant political or social changes.Describe the Wilson Cycle, beginning with continental rifting, ocean basin creation, plate subduction, and ending with ocean basin closure.Explain transform boundaries as places where adjacent plates shear past each other.Identify divergent boundaries, including rifts and mid-ocean ridges, as places where plates separate.Identify convergent boundaries, including subduction and collisions, as places where plates come together.Explain how movement at the three types of plate boundaries causes earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.

Describe the physical and chemical layers of the Earth and how they affect plate movement.Describe how the ideas behind plate tectonics started with Alfred WegenerвЂ™s hypothesis of continental drift.2 Plate TectonicsДЄt the end of this chapter, students should be able to: A layer of shallow ocean limestone (white) has been brought to the top of a mountain by the convergent forces of the Sevier Orogeny.

Plate boundary types