Humans don’t always feel tectonic plates move, but we know they are in constant motion. Study the images of the boiling water an
d the convection currents beneath Earth’s surface. Explain how the images show that the tectonic plates are constantly moving, and describe how the images are related.
The flames of the stove heat the water at the bottom of the pot. The hot water moves to the top of the pot, where it cools and sinks to the bottom. There, it gets heated agian and rises, and so the cycle continues. Similarly, the temperature in earths core is extremely high. The magma near the core heats up and rises toward the crust, where it cools and begins to fall back down. After falling, the magma gets heated up again and rises, continuing the cycle. This movement, which happens adjacent to tectonic plates above, causes the plates to move.