When the Earth was young, the majority of the mantle would have been viscous melted rock, but this has cooled and solidified over millions of years to form the mantle we know today. The mantle makes up 84 percent of the Earth’s volume, and consists of both solid and molten rock known as magma. There are seven major plates: the Pacific, North American, Eurasian, African, Antarctic, Indo-Australian, and South American and 10 minor plates: Somali, Nazca, Phillipine Sea, Arabian, Caribbean, Cocos, Caroline, Scotia, Burma, and the New Hebrides plates. Tectonic plates exist in both oceanic and continental areas, and traverse country and continental borders. These plates, which are large chunks of the crust, are free-floating in/on the liquid lower level known as the mantle. The Earth’s crust is also broken up into various pieces, known as tectonic plates, which fit together in a puzzle-like manner to form what is collectively called the crust.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |