This demonstration shows how the Earth's magnetic field has flipped (the N pole becoming the S pole, and vice versa) many times through geological time. It also demonstrates that as tectonic plates move apart, new rock is formed and locks in the direction of the magnetic field at the time. Students should realize that the discovery of stripes of alternately normal and reversed-magnetized rocks forming ... Full description.

Since the Hawaiian Islands were all created by volcanic activity, it is somewhat surprising that only the island of Hawaii now possesses any active volcanoes. Why did the volcanoes that built the other islands stop erupting and why are those on the big island still active? This video segment, adapted from a NOVA television broadcast, shows how plumes of hot material rise from the Earth's interior ... Full description.

This module offers an introduction to the concepts explored by Alfred Wegener, Harry Hess, and others. It is the first in a series on plate tectonics. Full description.

The PALEOMAP Project illustrates the plate tectonic development of the ocean basins and continents, as well as the changing distribution of land and sea during the past 1100 million years. The reconstruction of paleoclimates is also discussed. Maps are viewed as animations where the time component can be user-manipulated. Included are a variety of background materials which supplement the animations. ... Full description.

This activity uses food to demonstrate plate tectonic motions. Students construct a model using different snacks, which represent various parts of the Earth. For example, frosting represents the asthenosphere, fruit rollups are the Earth's plates, and graham crackers are meant to be the Earth's crust. Students learn how tectonic plates (lithosphere) ride atop the slow flowing asthenosphere layer, ... Full description.

In this lesson students will discover how seamounts in the Axial-Cobb-Eikelberg-Patton chain were formed. They will learn about the processes that form seamounts, describe the movement of tectonic plates in the Gulf of Alaska region and explain the types of volcanic activity that might be associated with these movements, and describe how a combination of hotspot activity and tectonic plate movement ... Full description.

In this activity, students use magnetic field data and a map of the ocean floor around Iceland to observe how the direction of magnetization of the ocean floor varies. This links the magnetization of rocks with the theory of tectonic plates. As students complete the worksheet they will discover that the magnetic field of the Earth has flipped (the N pole becoming the S pole, and vice versa) many times ... Full description.

This demonstration models the manner in which the convection currents in the mantle of the Earth cause movement of the plates. Convection currents in the mantle were thought, for many years, to be solely responsible for plate tectonic movements, with the movement taking rocks down at destructive margins and new rocks forming when plates spread. It is now thought likely that there are three possible ... Full description.

In this activity, students explore how the movement of tectonic plates forms mountains, volcanoes, oceans, and earthquakes. It first describes the plates and the various types of interaction at plate boundaries. An interactive map of the world shows the relationship between plate boundaries and earthquakes, allowing the student to click on selected place to explore a volcano, mountain, hotspot or ... Full description.

Information on this site about the early history of the Theory of Plate Tectonics begins in 1912 with Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), who noticed that most of the continents seem to fit together like a puzzle. The west African coastline seems to fit nicely into the east coast of South America and the Caribbean sea, and a similar fit appears across the Pacific. He proposed that the continents were once ... Full description.