Monday 22 July 2013

Modelling processes where two plates move apart


An extremely popular activity to demonstrate processes happening at constructive (divergent) plate margins is 'A "mantle plume" in a beaker'.  This Earthlearningidea investigates what happens when a viscous material (syrup) is heated and rises, with the resultant moving apart of floating objects (broken biscuit) above it. This can be related to a rising plume of hot material beneath a constructive plate margin.
This is one of many plate tectonics activities available to download free from our website.

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