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Asked by scientistj11 to Asif, Laura, Lena, Sean, Viv on 14 Mar 2012.
Question: why does the earth have tectonic plates?
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Laura Waters answered on 14 Mar 2012:
The surface is a few bits that have cracks. It is more like liquid underneath and when the liquid comes up to the surface you get a vocano!
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Sean Murphy answered on 14 Mar 2012:
Heat! When you take a cake out of the oven, it slowly cools. Earth, and the other terrestrial planets, started out very hot. Through time, they have cooled. The heat from the interior is slowly transported from the center to the surface, where it is lost from Earth. Heat currents in Earth’s interior move the rigid plates across Earth’s surface. Tectonic deformation and earthquakes mostly occur at the boundaries between these plates.
Comments
scientistj11 commented on :
but why have the formed?
Sean commented on :
As the earth cooled down from being very hot the ground broke up, forming the tectonic plates