The Forever Moving Land

The Earth and Its Satellite. New York, NY: David McKay Company, Inc., 1971. Michaux, C. M. Handbook of the Physical Properties of the Planet Mars. Washington, D. C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1967. Mutch, Thomas A.

Great mountain ranges are formed by the movement of tectonic plates. Convection currents deep in the mantle of the earth, begins to well up towards the surface. As the pressure increases, it sets the crustal plates in motion. There are different kinds of mountains - Volcanic, Folded, Fault-block, and Dome mountains. Volcanic mountains are formed when magma comes up through cracks in the Earth’s crust and explodes out lava and ash.

Exploring Planetary Worlds. New York: Scientific American Library. Thompson, G. & Turk, J. (1993). Earth Science and the Environment.

Smoot, George. Wrinkles in Time. New York: Morrow, 1993. Whitney, Charles A. The Discovery of Our Galaxy.

Due to the existence of an immense temperature and concurrent pressure difference in the outer layer and inner layer of the earth, convection currents occur at the mantle. This energy results from overwhelming decomposition of radioactive substances contained by the rocks found at the interior of the earth. The developed convection currents lead to movement of lava; cold lava finds its way to the interior of the earth crust, while the molten lava which is generally hot, leaves the interior of the earth to the outside of the earth crust. These kinds of circulations occur at different locations of the earth surface and consequently results in segmentation of the earth due to movement in different directions. The concurrent convective circulations in the mantle leads to some segments of the mantle moving on top of the outer core which is very hot and molten in nature.

7 Jack Meadows, The Great Scientists. Oxford University; New York, 1987, p. 35. 8 Deborah Hitzeroth and Sharon Heerbor, Galileo Galilei. Lucent Books Inc; California, 1992, p.15. 9 Ibid., p.16.

De Lauer, 2001, Nuclear Rocket Propulsion,McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. 9. R. Zubrin, March 18, 2005 The Economic Viability of Mars Colonization,report issued by Lockheed Martin Astronautics.

Volcanoes occur in many different places. Most places volcanoes occur on the edge of the tectonic plates. Volcanoes are formed by the earth’s plates moving closer and closer pushing each other up. Volcanoes are one of the most frightening and dangerous events on earth. A volcano I an opening in earth's crust, by molten rock and gas.Most of the Earth's volcanoes are located around the Pacific Ring of Fire because that the location of most of the Earth's subduction zones.When lava erupts it is made up of a slush of crystals, liquid, and bubbles.

Supposedly this super continent began to break up about 225-200 million years ago, eventually coming into the position the continents are today. Similar fossils of several different animals and plants that once lived on land had been found widely separated on the continents. There would be no way that these could have gotten where they were found if the continents were then as they are now. Works cited 1.) History of Plate Tectonics -http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html 2.)

3. Craig, Albert M., et al., Eds. et The Heritage of World Civilizations. 2 Vols. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986.