What is mantle convection and what does it have to do with plate tectonics?

What is mantle convection and what does it have to do with plate tectonics?

Geologists have hypothesized that the movement of tectonic plates is related to convection currents in the earth’s mantle. Tremendous heat and pressure within the earth cause the hot magma to flow in convection currents. These currents cause the movement of the tectonic plates that make up the earth’s crust.

What does convection in the mantle do to the earth’s plates?

In the Earth, this happens in the magma in the mantle. The core heats up the magma and causes a convection current. When magma comes to the top of the mantle, it pushes against tectonic plates, which are huge slabs of rock which the crust rests on.

Which of the following is true of the movement of the tectonic plates?

The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent, where plates move into one another; divergent, where plates move apart; and transform, where plates move sideways in relation to each other. They move at a rate of one to two inches (three to five centimeters) per year.

What is mantle convection in plate tectonics?

Mantle convection is the very slow creeping motion of Earth’s solid silicate mantle caused by convection currents carrying heat from the interior to the planet’s surface. Accretion occurs as mantle is added to the growing edges of a plate, associated with seafloor spreading.

How convection occurs in the mantle?

The mantle is heated from below (the core), and in areas that are hotter it rises upwards (it is buoyant), whereas in areas that are cooler it sink down. This results in convection cells in the mantle, and produces horizontal motion of mantle material close to the Earth surface.

What is convection in Earth science?

Convection is the circular motion that happens when warmer air or liquid — which has faster moving molecules, making it less dense — rises, while the cooler air or liquid drops down. Convection currents within the earth move layers of magma, and convection in the ocean creates currents.

What is the process of convection in the mantle?

Mantle convection is the process by which the excess heat in the Earth’s deep interior is transferred to its surface through the fluid-like motions of the rocks in the mantle. Convection occurs in the Earth’s mantle because it is the most efficient way for the Earth to cool or dispose of its deep-seated heat content.

What are convection currents are powered by?

Convection currents are the result of differential heating. Lighter (less dense), warm material rises while heavier (more dense) cool material sinks. It is this movement that creates circulation patterns known as convection currents in the atmosphere, in water, and in the mantle of Earth.

What is true about the Earth’s plates?

Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth’s outer shell is divided into large slabs of solid rock, called “plates,” that glide over Earth’s mantle, the rocky inner layer above Earth’s core. Earth’s solid outer layer, which includes the crust and the uppermost mantle, is called the lithosphere.

How does mantle convection Brainly?

Answer: Mantle convection occurs because relatively hot rocks are less dense and rise in a gravitational field while relatively cold rocks are more dense and sink. The rise of hot rocks advects heat upward while the fall of cold rocks advects cold downward; this counterflow is equivalent to an upward heat flux.

How does the process of convection in the Earth’s mantle affect the formation of mountains and the temperature in the surface?

As tectonic plates slowly move away from each other, heat from the mantle’s convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense. The less-dense material rises, often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor.