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This week, we began our plate tectonics project. We were free to choose whatever topic we wished within the 5 topics our teacher gave us. Me and my group chose to do the Discovery project, where we have to do some research and a lot of math to find out where the tectonic plates of the Earth will be in 150 million years. We thought it would be easy, just a few simple calculations, but it wasn't. We had to do a lot more work on it. We started with finding out how many tectonic plates there are (17), and their names*. We also figured out how far each of the different plates move per year. We thought it was around 2, but all of them have a different number, so we found the exact. We then multiplied each of those numbers by 150 million to find out how far they would move in that much time. We then discovered the direction each of them move in*. After that, we found out the diameter of the Earth in centimeters, and then we divided by 24 and multiplied that by the number of cm each plate was to move in 150 million years to find out how many little squares to move it. We are using a coordinate grid of latitude/longitude to move them, and so we move them the number of squares to get our answer. Then we made a pixlr drawing of the new Earth. We're still in progress, but we're doing really well.
Pacific Plate
Moves 9 (7-11) cm per year
1,350,000,000 cm/25.4277194 cm
North west
North American Plate
Moves 2.3 cm per year
345,000,000 cm/6.49819495
Southwest
Juan De Fuca Plate (won-dee-fooca)
Moves 4 cm per year
600,000,000 cm/11.3012086
Northeast
African Plate
Moves 2.15 cm per year
322,500,000 cm/6.07439962
Northeast
Antarctic Plate
Moves 1 cm per year
150,000,000 cm/2.82530215
Northwest
Australian Plate
Moves 3.7 cm per year
555,000,000 cm/10.453618
North
Indian Plate
Moves 3.1 (2.6-3.6) cm per year
465,000,000 cm/8.75843667
Northeast
Eurasian Plate
Moves 3 cm per year
450,000,000 cm/8.47590645
south east
Nazca Plate (naz-cuh)
Moves 3.7 cm per year
555,000,000 cm/10.453618
East
Caribbean Plate
Moves 1 cm per year
150,000,000 cm/2.82530215
Northwest
Cocos Plate (coh-cohs)
Moves 6.7 cm per year
1,005,000,000 cm/18.9295244
Northeast
Scotia Plate (scoh-shia)
Moves 2.5 cm per year
375,000,000 cm/7.06325538
West
Filipino Plate
Moves 6.6 cm per year
990,000,000 cm/18.6469942
Northwest
Arabian Plate
Moves 1.75 (1.5-2) cm per year
262,500,000 cm/4.94427876
North
South American Plate
Moves 7.7 cm per year
1,155,000,000 cm/21.7548266
West
S&EP: SP2, Using Models
We are using a lot of models to discover more about this topic. We are using a pixlr drawing of the Earth (an online model) to separate and move the plates the appropriate amount of space that they should move per year. Once we have that done and we know the new position of the plates, we are going to make a paper mache model of the Earth to show the new whereabouts of the plates.
XCC: Patterns
We are using a lot of patterns in order to make our drawings and models work. We used a lot of math, which is a pattern, but we're also using the patterns to move the plates around and to make the new model. We had to take the Earth's diameter in cm, divide by 24, and then multiply by the number of cm it was to move in 150 million years. Then we used the latitude and longitude squares on the Earth model to easily move the plates to where they will be at that time.
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