Plate Boundaries
Objectives:
Compare and contrast different types of plate boundaries.
Problem: In this lab, we will be modeling how crustal plates move. What ways can you think of that the plates move? What happens at the plate boundaries?
Hypothesis:
1. If I ______then
2. If I ______then
3. If I ______then
Collecting and Analyzing Data:
Part 1 Divergent Plate Boundaries
1. What happens to the frosting between the graham crackers, how does it look?
2. What do each of the graham crackers represent?
3. What does the frosting represent?
4. Draw and label a divergent plate. Predict what would be happening at a divergent boundary.
Part 2 Convergent Plate Boundaries (continental and ocean)
1. What type of plate does the Styrofoam represent?
2. What type of plate does the graham cracker represent?
3. What happens when a piece of crust goes under another piece of crust (called subduction)?
4. Draw and label a convergent plate (continental and ocean)
Part 3 Convergent Plate Boundaries
1. What does the graham cracker represent?
2. In what way are the wet graham crackers more like the real crustal plates than are the dry graham crackers?
3. What feature is represented where curling and folding occurred at the ends of the wet graham cracker?
4. Draw and label a convergent plate boundary (two continental plates). What type of land feature would you predict to be in this area?
Part 4 Transform Plate Boundaries
1. Why is this movement often described as “horizontal sliding?”
2. What famous fault is associated with this type of movement?
3. As you modeled this type of fault, nothing happened at the beginning, but as the pressure increased, the graham crackers finally broke. How is this similar to the situation in California?
4. Draw and label a transform plate boundary. What type of catastrophic event might you predict to occur in this area?
In your Journal make a cause and effect map for
Convergent (continental – continental)
Convergent (Ocean – continental)
Divergent
Transform