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The mantle rock is moving very slowly, at only a few centimeters a year. But
it is on the move.
The Earth's Core
Enclosed by the mantle is the earth's core. This center of the Earth is
made up of two parts-the outer core and the inner core. Both are made up
of a similar mixture of iron and nickel found in meteorites. Scientist knows
that the Earth has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core. At its
very center, the temperature is about 8,000 degree C. The outer core is
1,360 miles (2,267 km) thick and the inner core has a radius of 790 miles
(1,317 km).
The Continents
Scientist realized that the face of the earth is always changing. Around
420 million years ago a space traveller from a distance planet would have
seen four continents. One would have been part of what is now part of Asia.
The fourth was made up of the southern continents, all joined together. This
southern continent is called Gondwanaland.
Plate movements gradually pushed the Northern American and
European plates together. The collision of the land masses crumpled the
rocks on the edge of the continents into a range of mountains. Fragments of
this range now include the northern Appalachians in North America, the
mountains of eastern Greenland, western Ireland and Scotland, and the
mountains of Norway and Sweden. This new landmass is called Euramerica.
The Break UP of PANGEA
Euramerica collided with Angara (now Asia) around 275 million years
ago and the Ural Mountains were pushed upwards between them. The three
plates were now joined forming one huge and area called Laurasia. Laurasia
and Gondwanaland were separated at first by the Ancient Tethys sea, but
soon Laurasia and Gondwanaland moved together to form a single landmass
called Pangaea.
In the last 180 million years, Pangaea has broken up and the moving
plates have carried the continents to their present positions, creating new
ocean basins between them. North America drifted westward and South
America broke off from Africa. India and Africa split apart and India drifted
northward toward Asia.
Plate movements still continue and scientists can now speculate as to
what the earth will look like some time in the future. Today's world map is,
therefore, just a snapshot of a moment in earth time.
Evidence for Continental Drift
Why are scientists now score that the continents move overtime? They have
collected much evidence supporting two related conclusions:
Continents now separated by wide oceans were once joined
Each continents location on earth's surface hanged
Fossil Evidence
Most of the ocean floor is flat, it is dominated by two features: ridges and
trenches. The total mountain ridge is a mountain chain about 80,000 km.
long, with peaks 4,500 meters high.
The ocean ridges break the surface in places to form islands. Iceland is the
largest of these ridge islands. Away from the ridges are isolated volcanic
peaks known as sea mounts. Example of these sea mounts is the Hawaiian
chain.
The sea floor was continually spreading outward from the ocean ridges.
New ocean floor was calculated being created at the rate of a few
centimeters every year. This idea later became known as the "theory of sea
floor spreading" which was proposed by Harry Hess.
Hess also believed that the ocean crust was being destroyed as fast as being
formed. Around the edge of the oceans is a series of deep trenches. There is
one just west of Pacific Coast of South America, for example. The deepest of
these trenches is the Mariana Trench, which extends 11,033 meters down
near the Pacific Island of Guam.
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Prepared by:
Rezeile Joy Erese BEEd III-B