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Earth Structure

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Submitted By cflood2
Words 829
Pages 4
Connor Flood

February 21, 2011

827-939-015

NR 130-001

The Earth’s structure is one that is both complex and ever changing. The layers of the multifaceted planet Earth have many different metals and rocks that make up the layers that surround the liquid core. On top, the many different plates of the crust move in different ways and form boundaries. The boundaries cause many different, violent reactions such as volcanoes that produce powerful eruptions. As I will cover in this paper, the plates move in three different ways, which give way to three different types of effects on the surface. The first type of boundary is the divergent boundary. These boundaries form when two plates or more separate from each other and create an area of new crust that is magma as it flows up from the mantle (Watson 1999). Divergent boundaries are distinct in that new crust is always formed because of the plates flowing in opposite directions. A good example of a divergent boundary is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The vast amount of plates and faults had created an underwater mountain range that extends from the Northern Artic all the way down to the tip of Africa (Watson 1999). Although this mountain range has taken millions of years to for, it originally created the oceans that surround the continents today. Another type of boundary is the convergent boundary. This type of boundary acts completely different from a divergent boundary in that convergent boundaries either move towards each other or under each other. Mountains or highlands may form if the plates collide head on, but sometimes when they move under each other subduction zones are formed (Watson 1999). The types of convergence are oceanic-continental convergence, oceanic-oceanic convergence, and continental-continental convergence. These types of convergences create volcanic arcs, trenches, island arcs, mountain ranges,

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