Plate Tectonics

1. Plate Tectonics Chapter 1-2 Convection and the Mantle

2. Types of Heat Transfer • Heat always moves from warmer to cooler • Three types of heat transfer • Radiation – transfer of energy through space • No direct contact between heat source and object • Ex. Sunlight, heat from an open fire

3. Conduction – transfer within a material or between materials touching • Ex. Metal spoon in a pot of hot soup – you touch the spoon and the heat conducts from the spoon to your skin. • Convection– transferred by the movement of fluids. • Movement of currents within a fluid Figure 8, p. 15

4. Convection Currents • Convection Current – the flow that transfers heat within a fluid • Continue as long as heat is added. • Heat from the core and the mantle itself causes convection currents in the mantle. Figure 9, p. 16

5. Convection Currents in Earth • Heat from the core and the mantle cause convection currents in the mantle. • The mantle flows very slowly • Heats up at the bottom of the mantle, rises up, cools, sinks back down. Figure 10, p. 17