what are tectonic plates made of and how hot are they?
In: Physics
They are giant slabs of rock floating on a magma ocean. They are very hot on the bottom because they are floating on magma. Whatever land you are standing on is the top of the plate so that’s not hot. In the Atlantic the plates are growing so the ocean is getting wider. Then you have areas where they are colliding and one plate has to slip under the other. This is how we get most earthquakes. Two plates smashing together is also how we get mountains. When India smashed into Asia we got the Himalayas. All these processes happen slowly over hundreds of millions of years. If you look at South America and Africa you can see they fit like puzzle pieces. Go on youtube and you can watch some videos.
Im no scientist but this is my understanding of how it works.
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