Name: Benjamin Kany Lab Partners: Sidd Tumu

Date: February 14th, 2013

TITLE:

Modeling Convection Currents

PURPOSE:
To find out how convection in the Earths mantle affects the motion of tectonic plates.

HYPOTHESIS:
If one performed an experiment using a hot and cold water model, then one could demonstrate the effect of mantle convection currents on the movement of tectonic plates because the lesser density of the hot material would allow the hot material to rise, move the tectonic plates, and then having become cooler and more dense, sink back to the bottom.

MATERIALS:
1000 ml. (large) beaker Food Coloring 150 ml. (small) beaker Aluminum foil Rubber band Several paper hole punches or other small pieces of paper Hot and cold tap water Plastic spoon Pencil with a sharp point

PROCEDURE:
1. Set up all of the materials. 2. Prepared small paper circles (hole punches) and make them accessible. 3. Put approximately 1000 ml. cold water in the large beaker. 4. Filled small beaker with hot water about 150 ml. 5. Dyed the hot water by mixing food color into it with the spoon. 6. Made the aluminum foil accessible to cover the small beaker quickly and secured it with the rubber band to keep the water hot. 7. Completely submerged the small beaker in the large one. 8. With the pencil, poked a small hole into the foil covering the small beaker. 9. Dropped the small paper punches near the center of the surface of the water in the large beaker. 10. Watched at eye level as colored water rose from the small beaker to near the surface of the water in the large beaker and then fell. 11. Recorded data, made observations, and drew conclusions.

DATA/RESULTS:
Before During

After

Before
All of the paper hole punches, which represented the tectonic plates, were still.

During
When the hot water rose and escaped from the small beaker the paper hole punches moved apart, modeling the motion of tectonic plates when struck by convection currents. As the hot water cooled, it sank back down to the bottom.

After
The paper hole punches were spread out over the surface of the water in the large beaker, and the colored water had sunk to the bottom.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION:
The purpose of this experiment was to find out how convection in Earths mantle affected the motion of tectonic plates. The principal hypothesis was that if one performed a hot and cold water model, then the student could demonstrate how convection within the mantle would cause currents to rise to the underside of tectonic plates and, upon striking them, force them to move, because hot mantle, having risen and become to cooler further from the earths core, would become denser, and sink back downward. The experiment was designed to model the hypotheses using the materials described: a large beaker, a small beaker, food coloring, aluminum foil, a rubber band, paper hole punches, hot and cold water, a spoon, and a pencil with a sharp point. In the model, the different levels of density between the hot water and cold water would represent the density differences between hot and cool mantle material. The rising of the less dense hot water would model the rising of the less dense hot mantle and the impact of the rising mantle on the paper punches would model the impact of rising mantle on tectonic plates. As the hot water cooled and became denser, it would sink, modeling the cooling and increased density of the mantle material. From the data the student recorded, it clearly shows that the tectonic plates, which were represented by the paper hole punches, moved as a result of contact by the convection currents in the mantle, which was represented by the hot water. Before the convection began, when the foil covering the hot water was pierced, all of the paper hole punches were bunched up around the middle of the surface of the water in the large beaker. But when a hole was poked in the foil, so that the less dense hot water could escape, it rose to the surface and nudged the tectonic plates, which then began to move apart. As the hot water reached the surface, it was cooling and becoming denser, and so it began to sink to the downward. Observations made in this experiment suggest that the model used can describe the action on a much larger scale of rising heated convection currents of

mantle that can have a visible impact on tectonic plates. The tectonic plates moved because the plates are floating on a layer of much hotter, softer, more malleable rock called the asthenosphere and when convection currents move, the tectonic plates move with them. In the model, the activity took place within only a few minutes, but in a larger area, such as within the earths mantle, the action would be similar, although much slowerthe tectonic plates move about as fast as a human fingernail grows. The effect of the convection currents of mantle on tectonic plates helps to explain and to support the theory of continental drift. There are other ways that one could design a model to demonstrate the effects of convection current on Earths mantle. One way would use a common toy, a lava lamp, which also works because of convection currents. Heat from the light bulb warms a colored wax at the base of the lamp which rises like a convection current. The colored wax rises because it is less dense than cooler surrounding liquid. As the blobs of hot wax move away from the heat source, they cool off, become denser again, and sink back down again toward the heat source at the bottom in a cycle of convection currents. In conclusion, the experimental model confirmed the students hypotheses about the motion of convection currents in the mantle through the asthenosphere and the effect of convection currents on tectonic plates. The student learned a lot from this experiment. The student learned how convection in Earths mantle affects how tectonic plates move. Convection in the mantle makes tectonic plates move due to the asthenosphere flowing and when hot temperatures rise, that allows the plates to break and move. In the experiment, the student could clearly see that convection in the earths mantle causes the tectonic plates to inch along on their endless journeys around the surface of the earth.

I HAVE COMPLETED THIS ASSIGNMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NEWARK ACADEMY HONOR CODE

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