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Geology & Geophysics

A guide to plate tectonics: How continents move

Plate movement has always been a hot topic for scientists to discuss, simply because we don't know much about whats inside our planet. The earths core heats rock and the elements that make rock, which means the particles in the hotter rock spread out faster, so the rock from the inner core rises through to the liquidized piece of the mantle; the lithosphere. When rock reaches the lithosphere, it cools again, before 'retreating' back down into the earths core, where gravity is at its strongest. This 'cycle' creates movement below the earths surface, which is unpredictable. This is why we can only guess at what Pangaea looked like, because the tectonic plates don't move in constant directions and at constant speeds. Without the liquidized 'lithosphere', our planet would have looked the same since land was created, possibly over 4 billion years ago. The poles of our planet hide several secrets into how magnetic fields contribute hot rock, but sadly, no conclusive evidence has been found to support this theory. An additional theory states that the radioactivity from within the earth triggers 'magma spasms'. These movements from under the earths crust have different forces at different points of the globe. This is a definite reason for why plates move at different speeds.

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A guide to plate tectonics: How continents move

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