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16.2 What Is the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
Updated over a week ago

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This National Geographic Sites website explains the different plates of the Earth and how they move. There are two short videos on the site. One of the videos talks about volcanoes and what the ring of fire is. The other video talks about earthquakes and why they happen.

This Bozeman Science video starts by talking about Alfred Wegener's theory and the proof for this theory. The video shows the plates on the planet and talks about how they move. It describes how earthquakes and volcanoes happen. It also talks about the convection currents that drive the movement of the plates. There is also discussion of seafloor spreading.

As a user clicks on arrows, information pops up about the area on the Earth’s crust. There are additional activities on the page about plate tectonics.

This KhanAcademy article explains convection and what that means when it is applied to the Earth’s crust. The website explains how convection is related to plate tectonics and talks about the mid-oceanic ridge.

his is a brief section of the BBC documentary film “Earth: The Power of the Planet.” This section explains the convection currents and what that does to the Earth’s crust.

This National Geographic website explains seafloor spreading. The website also explains the mid-ocean ridges and how speed with cause certain features underwater. If a ridge is separating slowly, there will be narrow underwater cliffs and mountains. If a ridge separates quickly, there will be gentle slopes underwater.

This is part of a Bill Nye video that explains the history of the discovery of sea floor spreading. Bill Nye talks with a geologist, Neal Driscoll, at Scripps about the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

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