MOUNTAINS AND PLATE TECTONICS

INTRO: You are studying the causes of plate movements and the features formed at plate boundaries, and now we will start to look at those features in more detail, starting with the formation of mountains, and how mountain building enlarges the continents. Read the following definitions, then take notes on the four topics that follow these words during the video "Mountain Building"  part of  The Earth Revealed Series (Intelecom. 1992) from Annenberg/CPB.

Some new(ish) words:

accreted terrane: rock that has been added to a continent. For example, the bedrock of Harwinton and Burlington was accreted to this continent from an ocean floor.

orogeny: making mountains

craton: the old, worn down, original rock of a continent, usually in the middle of that continent.

metamorphic/metamorphosed: these words refer to rock that was changed by heat and pressure into a different kind of rock without melting the rock.

sedimentary: made from sediment cemented together.

igneous: "ign" refers to fire, igneous rock forms from the cooling and solidifying of molten rock.

basalt: the rock that makes up the crust of the Earth under the oceans.

granite: the rock that makes up the continental crust.

magma: liquid rock under the surface.

isostasy: the way that the mantle supports the weight of the mountains, similar to the way that a lake supports a floating dock.

equilibrium: when forces are balanced.

weathering: the breaking down of rock.

erosion: the removal, transport, and deposition of rock material.

tectonics: the processes that move the lithosphere plates and cause plate boundary features to form.

Write down other new words below so you can look up their definitions later:

INSTRUCTIONS: Take notes on these questions during the video. For homework, turn your notes into paragraphs in your notebook.

1. How does plate tectonics cause continents to form?

2. How does plate tectonics cause mountain building (orogeny)?

3. How does the rock of a continent continue to rise even when the area is no longer tectonically active (isostasy)?

4. other interesting stuff.

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