(COMIC STRIP MADE BY TRICIA MACALANDA)

By measuring the
movement of
Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) a German refracted and
geophysicist and meteorologist reflected seismic
proposed, in 1912, that continents shift waves, scientists
positions on the surface of the Earth - were able to
but he didn't have an explanation for gradually infer
how continents could move around the how the Earth was
planet. layered and what
lay deeper at its
core.

There are three main layers

of the Earth - the core, the
mantle and the crust. They
are further divided into two
parts each: the inner and
outer core, the upper and
lower mantle and the
continental and oceanic
crust. The rigid upper part
of the Earth consisting of
That it is due to "plate tectonics" was discovered only
the upper mantle and the
about half a century later by geologists, after the advent crust is known as the
of seismology (the study of earthquakes and the lithosphere. The tectonic
propagation of elastic waves through the Earth). plates are the different
sections into which the
lithosphere is cracked.
 Because the Earth is spherical,
these plates are broken into
curved sections which are in
constant motion relative to each
other and meet in various ways
along their edges – these are the The oceanic crust is constantly recycled at the subduction zones,
‘plate boundaries’, where most therefore, even though the Earth is 4.54 billion years old, the oldest
volcanoes and earthquakes occur. seafloor is only about 200 million years old. The oldest ocean rocks
are found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and the eastern
Mediterranean Sea. Fragments of continental crust are much older,
with large chunks at least 3.8 billion years found in Greenland.

The continents are drifting even now. The Earth is

Research into the ocean floor also contributed to the theory of Plate Tectonics,
which provided the mechanism for Continental Drift. Geophysical evidence
suggested lateral motion of continents and that oceanic crust is younger than
continental crust. This geophysical evidence also spurred the hypothesis
of paleomagnetism, the record of the orientation of the Earth’s magnetic field
recorded in magnetic minerals.
going to be a very different place 250 million years
from now. Africa is going to smash into Europe as
Australia migrates north to merge with Asia.
Meanwhile the Atlantic Ocean will probably widen
for a spell before it reverses course and later
disappears .
That’s all for today class. CLASS, SETTLE DOWN!!!!!!

Any questions?

Plate tectonics occur due to the convection in the mantle. Hot material near the Earth's core
rises, and colder mantle rock sinks. The convection drives plates tectonics through a
combination of pushing and spreading apart at mid-ocean ridges (underwater mountain
range) and pulling and sinking downward at subduction zones (a region of the Earth's crust
where tectonic plates meet), researchers think. Scientists continue to study and debate the
mechanisms that move the plates. Mid-ocean ridges are ‘gaps’ between tectonic plates. Hot
magma wells up at the ridges, forming new ocean crust and shoving the plates apart. At
subduction zones, two tectonic plates meet and one slides beneath the other back into the
mantle, the layer underneath the crust. The cold, sinking plate pulls the crust behind it
KRRRRRR!!!!
downward.
!!!!!!!!! TO BE CONTINUED…

-Early at school…
Early in the morning at Pasay
City South Highschool…

“Now that we know all about

“We discussed about plate plate tectonics, let us discuss
about the theories that
tectonics, plate boundaries, support the idea of how and
why the earth looks like
and the basic layers of the Let us begin
recently.

earth.” with the

continental drift
theory!”

“In early history, Abraham Ortelius (Ortelius 1596),

Theodor Christoph Lilienthal (1756) Alexander von
Humboldt (1801 and 1845), Antonio Snider-Pellegrini (Snider-
Pellegrini 1858), and others had noted earlier that the shapes
of continents on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean(most
KRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!! notably, Africa and South America) seem to fit together.”

In 1889, Alfred Russel Wallace remarked, "It was formerly a very general belief, even amongst
geologists, that the great features of the earth's surface, no less than the smaller ones, were
subject to continual mutations, and that during the course of known geological time the
continents and great oceans had again and again changed places with each other."[8] He
quotes Charles Lyell as saying, "Continents, therefore, although permanent for whole geological
epochs, shift their positions entirely in the course of ages."[9] and claims that the first to throw
doubt on this was James Dwight Dana in 1849.

EVERYONE PILED IN CLASS AND TOOK THEIR SEATS. AS IF ON CUE, THEIR FIRST SUBJECT
TEACHER WALKS IN HOLDING A GLOBE. EVERYONE SETTLES AND QUIETS DOWN IN THEIR Alfred Wegener first presented his
SEATS. Now on with how it all gotten to
hypothesis to the German Geological
Society on 6 January 1912.[12] His
this! How does continental drift
“Now can hypothesis was that the continents had occur?
anyone tell
me what we
once formed a single landmass,
have called Pangaea, before breaking apart and
discussed
about last drifting to their present locations.
time?”

“Alright, class. Now today’s lesson in science we’ll be

discussing about the earth’s formation of crust”