Divergent plate movement

​Earth's crust is made of 7 large plates and 8 smaller plates.

​

Plates are the broken pieces of the Earth's crust together with the upper part of the mantle.

​

They move in different directions.

​

​Tectonic plates

Divergent PLATE BOUNDARIES

By color wni

Two tectonic plates move away from each other.

​

Creates​ mid-ocean ridges and rift valleys.

​

Creates new crust in the process of seafloor spreading.​

​

Multiple Choice

How do plates move at DIVERGENT boundaries?

• Collide (together)

• Move apart

• Slide past each other

Multiple Choice

How do DIVERGENT boundaries affect the crust?

• They create crust

• They destroy crust

• They don't destroy or create

Multiple Choice

Which of these tectonics plates are diverging ?

• Indo-Australian and Eurasian

• North American and Eurasian

• South American and African

• At a divergent boundary, two oceanic plates move apart.

• ​This allows magma in the mantle to rise, cool, and solidifies forming new crust.​​

• ​Older crust moves further away.​

• When the sea flor gets larger, this is called sea-floor spreading.​

​

Seafloor Spreading​

​

Multiple Choice

Magma, or molten rocks, __________ and hardens

• cools

• shrinks

• warms

Multiple Choice

_______ are mountain chains on the ocean floor.

• Sea-floor ridges

• Mid-ocean ridges

• Tectonic plates

Multiple Choice

Where would the oldest rock be found?

• L

• M

• N

• O

Multiple Choice

Mid-ocean ridges are found _____________.

• in all of Earth's oceans

• only in the Atlantic Ocean

• only in the Pacific Ocean

Multiple Choice

What volcanic island has formed along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ?

• Iceland

• Hawaii

• the Philippines

At a divergent boundary, two continental plates move apart.

​

Crust ​stretches until it breaks.

​

​

​

​Rift Valley

​

Multiple Choice

Plates cannot pull apart on land.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

The African and Arabian plates are moving apart and causing which of the following to get bigger ?

• the Mediterranean Sea

• the Caribbean Sea

• the Red Sea

​Characteristics of a divergent boundary:

Earthquakes

-> Shallow focus and weak (low-magnitude)

​

Volcanoes

-> Quiet, effusive eruption

since molten material of the mantle is so close to the surface.

​