California's Geologic Features

Examples of California's Geologic features are the San Andreas Fault, Mt. Shasta, Medicine Lake, and Lassen Park. The San Andread Fault was made by transform boundaries, which is when two tectonic, or lithospheric,  plates slide past each other.  A fault is the area that is between two plates.  In San Andreas' case, it is between the Pacific and North American Plates.  Mt. Shasta, Medicine Lake, and Lassen Park are all volcanoes, and were formed by subduction, which is when one plate goes over another one, pushing the other down into the mantle.

Mid Ocean Ridge

Did you know that the longest mountain ridge is underwater?  It is called the Mid Ocean Ridge.  The Mid Ocean Ridge is the longest mountain chain in the world!  The Mid Ocean Ridge doesn't just sit there underwater, it is responsible for things like sea floor spreading by letting magma out from underneath the crust. 

Plate Tectonics?

What are Plate Tectonics?
It was a theory, that the Earth's crust, was made out of large and small plates, that float on top of the lava underneath. Now, we know it is not just a theory, and it is the truth. That is now called Plate Tectonics. It has been discovered, that when the plates crashed together, that it is what causes earthquakes and mountains to form. When they move apart, they can create valleys. Those two features are called Convergent and Divergent Boundaries, respectively. The plates themselves move very slowly, 1 cm every year caused by convection currents. They are also moving the continents slowly together, so in a few thousand or million years, we might have a Pangaea again, the prehistoric super continent.

Layers of the Earth

There are many layers of our Beloved Planet Earth. They are the crust, mantle, inner core, and outer core. The crust is the outside of the Earth where life thrives. The mantle is the middle layer of the Earth and molten lava dominates it. These two layers make up the lithosphere. The next layer is the outer core. This layer is also dominated by lava and diamonds and crystals can be found here. The outer core is two times warmer than the mantle. The final layer of earth is the inner core. This layer is the hottest and it is the center of the Earth. Those are the 4 layers of the Earth. 

Ring of Fire

The Ring of Fire is a large range of fully active and dormant volcanoes located in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. The range is also a home to major earthquakes. 80 percent of the world's earthquakes happen here. The Ring of Fire was only created because of plate tectonics and the major movement of continental crust. The eastern part of the plate was created because of the subduction of the Nazcas and the Cocos plate. The northern part was made from the Pacific plate slipping under the Eulisian Islands. This place is very dangerous and holds no life.

Convergent and Divergent Boundaries. What are they?

Convergent and Divergent boundaries are what neat little things are called that happen when two plates either crash into one another, or separate, respectively. A convergent boundary, when plates crash together, can create hills or mountains. A divergent boundary is when two or more plates separate and can create new land. They can make things called 'rift valleys.' Sometimes they can make mid-oceanic ridges and volcanic islands if done underwater!  There is also a case when plates sub duct under each other.  This causes volcanoes to form!

Pangea

The earth as we know it is made up of seven continents, but it was not always that way!  A very long time ago, our seven continents were once merged together.  The continents were all combined and formed a super continent!  This amazing super continent was called Pangea.  Scientists had several pieces of evidence to back up their idea that there was once a super continent but two pieces stood out.  The first piece of evidence was how Africa fitted in so well with Asia.  The second piece of evidence was that scientists found many fossils of the same creature on different continents.  They concluded that with all this evidence, there must have been a super continent.  One hundred and eighty thousand years ago Pangea split apart into our seven continents.  Even though Pangea is not still standing today,  Pangea was one of the earths greatest features and will be treasured for many more years to come.