Solid Earth

The student knows that plate tectonics is the global mechanism for major geologic process and that heat transfer, governed by the principles of thermodynamics, is the driving force.

Students will calculate the motion history of tectonic plates using equations relating rate, time, and distance to predict future motions, location and resulting geologic features.

 science refers to the corresponding methods of study, a subset of Earth sciences, predominantly geophysics and geology, excluding aeronomy, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, hydrology, and ecology.

German meteorologist Alfred Wegener is often credited as the first to develop a theory of plate tectonics, in the form of continental drift. Bringing together a large mass of geologic and paleontological data.

Although this has yet to be proven with certainty, most geologists and geophysicists agree that plate movement is caused by the convection (that is, heat transfer resulting from the movement of a heated fluid) of magma in Earth’s interior.

The Ring of Fire is a long horseshoe-shaped earthquake-prone belt of volcanoes and tectonic plate boundaries that fringes the Pacific Ocean basin.