In our last post we talked about how the outer layer of the Earth is called the crust and this is the layer we live on. The crust is not just one big covering like the peel around an orange. Instead it is like a jigsaw and all the pieces fit together. So it would be like if you peeled the orange and then put the peel back on. You would be putting it back on in pieces and sticking them all together to try and cover the orange again. Try doing it! There will now be little gaps between the orange peels. If this was our Earth we would call the pieces of peel the 'plates'.
The mantle is underneath the plates and is made of liquid rock. The plates all float on top of the liquid rock. Can you imagine that underneath the ground we walk on, is actually a runny, oozy melting rock and the crust under our feet is floating on top of it! So that means all the jigsaw pieces (plates) of the crust are floating on the melting rock.
These moving plates cause earthquakes and volcanoes. If you imagine the plates all floating around on top of the mantle. They will have to glide past each other and sometimes will rub together. When this happens they cause a vibration which causes the ground to shake. This is an earthquake.
Other times the plates will move away from each other causing a gap. This gap allows the liquid rock and gas beneath the crust to escape out onto the surface of the Earth. When liquid rock escapes like this a volcano is formed. In the next post we will look at volcanoes in more detail.
THE MOVING OF THE PLATES IS CALLED 'PLATE TECTONICS'. Plate tectonics means our continents are moving each year. They are being carried in different directions because they are part of different moving plates.
Have a look at this video to get a clearer picture of the moving plates.
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