Ages

Introduction

Summary

The heat from inside the Earth causes the material of the mantle to permanently rise up along the ocean ridges, resulting in the formation of a dense basaltic crust which slowly rolls away from the ridge, much like a rug being rolled up. The continents, which are made of an insubmergible lightweight crust, passively drift with the movement of the lithospheric plates on which they sit.
The animation illustrates the movements of the lithospheric plates from 250 million years in the past through to the present, as well as projections of continental movements 30 million years into the future.

Goals

• To illustrate the arrangement and movements of the lithospheric plates on the Geological Time Scale.
• To study of the evolution of lithospheric plates’ positions, from Pangea to the present, as well as an extrapolation of their positions in the distant future (30 MY).

Features

Click on button to see the position of lithospheric plates today.

Rollover the continents to see the names of the lithospheric plates.

Click on or to play/stop the animation.

Student sheet

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Tags

continental drift Wegener lithospheric-plate Pangaea boundary collision subduction divergence Pangea Gondwana tectonics ocean