The world around us
48
Does the Earth’s
crust move?
The
lithosphere
is all the rocks and minerals on the Earth’s crust and part of the upper mantle. The
lithosphere is always moving! But it moves so slowly that we don’t notice it. The lithosphere, under the
ground we walk on, consists of huge areas of rock which are called
tectonic plates
. These plates make the
continents. They can be high and form dry land, or lower and be under the seas and oceans.
R E A D & T H I N K
1
Read and match to tectonic plates or earthquake.
a)
move slowly.
b)
form continents.
c)
cause damage to buildings and people.
The Earth has seven major
plates which form the
continents. They are the
African, Antarctic, Eurasian,
North American, South
American, India-Australian
and the Pacific plates.
The places where plates
meet are called
fault lines
.
As the plates are always moving,
sometimes they bump into one another.
The places this happens most are the
fault lines. This movement can cause
earthquakes
. If this happens, the Earth
moves and sometimes opens up. This
can cause a lot of damage to land,
people and buildings. Sometimes these
earthquakes form under the sea and
cause giant waves called a
tsunami
.
The crust’s movements
