How does climate evidence support the theory of continental drift?
Wegener used evidence from climate change to further support his theory. For example, an island in the Arctic Ocean contains fossils of tropical plants. According to Wegener, the island once must have been located close to the equator. Wegener also pointed to scratches on rocks made by glaciers.
What happens if tectonic plates stopped moving?
If all plate motion stopped, Earth would be a very different place. Erosion would continue to wear the mountains down, but with no tectonic activity to refresh them, over a few million years they would erode down to low rolling hills.
Will plate tectonics ever stop?
After the planet’s interior cooled for some 400 million years, tectonic plates began shifting and sinking. This process was stop-and-go for about 2 billion years. In another 5 billion years or so, as the planet chills, plate tectonics will grind to a halt.
What will happen when Earth’s plate tectonics stop?
But without plate tectonics, Earth will simply stop making new ones. The mountains we have now would erode over a few million years, turning into low, rolling hills. Our planet would eventually flatten out, with more land ending up underwater. But if volcanoes are out, then so is Earth’s magnetic field.
What are the causes and effects of plate tectonics?
They have also caused faults, cracks in the earth’s crust. Shifts along a fault can also cause earthquakes or violent jolts in the area around it. In coastal areas undersea earthquakes can cause huge waves known as Tsunamis to erupt. Plate tectonics cause folding of rock layers into mountains.
What are the five effects of plate tectonics?
Explain how rock formations, geologic environments, mineral resources, volcanoes and their eruptions, landforms, mountain building processes, climate change, evolution, folds, faults and earthquakes relate to and are affected by plate tectonics. [Insert brief introductory statement here.]