Lesson Intro & Agenda

Think the Earth is set in stone? Think again. Northern Arizona University's Ron Blakey explains how today's continents are evolved over the last 600 million years, and where they'll end up in the next 100 million years.

The Early Earth and Plate Tectonics

Lesson Tasks

To complete this lesson, you need to...

Read and study Chapters 2 and 3 in our textbook
View the recorded mini-lectures in this lesson (web)
Take Quiz 2 (web)
Participate in peer instruction activities in-class (f2f)
Post your group's findings to Point Moray Field Trip Discussion (web)

Outcomes

Can you already do any of the following lesson outcomes? Thinking about topics before diving into the content can help you learn more efficiently.

Describe the theory of Plate Tectonics
1. Identify the plates and plate boundaries that make up the broken surface of the earth's crust
2. Sketch and describe the interior layers of the earth
3. Describe the theory of "continental drift"
4. Explain seafloor spreading; where is it, what happens there
5. Explain how hot spots confirm plate motions
6. Explain different seafloor sediment thicknesses and ages, as caused by seafloor spreading