The+World+and+the+Early+People+Notes

Notes For “The World and the Early People” I. Earth’s surface has tectonic plates that move and shift at a very slow pace. A.Earth quakes are a form of plates moving. B.A theory is an explanation to how the continents came to be. II. 200 million years ago the Earths plates were all in one bunch. This was called Pangaea. A. When the continents move it is called a Continental Drift. B. The Plate Tectonics theory explains how the Earth changed from having one large continent to several smaller continents over the years. III. Earth has many different layers. A.The layers are crust, mantle, outer core and inner core. B.The crust is the surface that we are on. The mantle is about 26 miles below the crust. The outer core 1,800 miles below. The inner core, or hot metal ball is beneath the outer core. IV. Earth’s plates have made many different changes over millions of years. A.Experts say that about 200 million years ago, there was only one continent Pangaea. This is when all of the continents were bundled together. B.120 million years ago Earth’s plates broke into two continents. Gondwana and Laurasia. C.Present day we have 7 continents that are still moving one inch each year. D. Experts predict that in the years to come Earth’s continents may be in completely different places or even come together again.