Year 8 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 21

Plate Tectonics

Foundation Worksheet

Name

Date

Class

Learning Goals

Recall Wegener's evidence for continental drift and the name of the original supercontinent.
Name the three types of plate boundaries and the features each creates.
Describe how mantle convection drives plate movement.

Warm Up

Fill the gap

Choose the correct word from the word bank to complete each sentence. Two words are distractors, they will not be used.

continental drift Wegener subduction divergent convergent transform fossil eruption radiation

In 1912, Alfred proposed the idea of , suggesting that today's continents were once joined as one supercontinent. One piece of evidence he used was matching records, the same ancient plants and animals found on continents now separated by deep ocean. At a boundary, two plates move apart, creating new crust at mid-ocean ridges. Where an oceanic plate dives beneath a continental plate, this process is called . At a boundary, plates slide past each other, causing earthquakes such as those along California's San Andreas Fault. At a boundary, plates collide, and if both are continental, mountain ranges like the Himalayas form.

Your Turn

Sort it!

Write each item from the pool into the correct category box. Some items may belong to more than one category, if so, write the item in both boxes and add a note explaining why.

Mountain ranges Ocean trench Mid-ocean ridge Rift valley San Andreas Fault Subduction zone Himalayas Earthquakes only (no volcanoes) New seafloor forming

Convergent boundary

Divergent boundary

Transform boundary

Show What You Know

1. Why was Wegener's continental drift hypothesis rejected when he first proposed it in 1912?

Recall 2 marks

2. What drives the movement of tectonic plates? Name the process and the layer of Earth where it occurs.

Recall 2 marks

Wrap Up

In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?