Why Continents Are High

From the creator

Learn to use your career to make a difference at https://80000hours.org/minuteearth Lots of geological forces need to come together for continents to form, but they all require one ingredient: water. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Tectonic plate: Earth’s rigid outer layer is broken up into a bunch of pieces, called tectonic plates. Usually people think of tectonic plates as the Earth’s crust, but the plates are actually made of the crust PLUS the very top of the mantle, which is cool enough to be rigid and hard and stuck to the crust. The crust and the top of the mantle together are called the “lithosphere.” Underneath that is a part of the mantle called the “asthenosphere,” which is the part that oozes and flows. - Subduction Zone: The area where two tectonic plates collide and the denser of the two is forced under and dives down into Earth’s mantle. - Mariana Trench: The subduction zone where the Pacific Plate slides under the Philippine Plate. The edge of the Philippine plate is kind of pulled down in the process, creating a deep crevice in Earth’s surface, known as a deep ocean trench. The Mariana Trench is the deepest ocean trench in the world. - Granite: A type of igneous rock formed when magma cools slowly underground (creating relatively large crystals). Granite is different from other igneous rocks like basalt because it has a higher percentage of low-density minerals like quartz and feldspar.

Published 2022-07-29 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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