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    Oreo Lab and Plate Tectonics HW

    Uploaded by

    Dwayne Heart Hernández
    This document describes an experiment using Oreo cookies to simulate plate tectonic boundaries. The upper cookie represents the lithosphere, the creamy filling represents the asthenosphere, and the lower cookie represents the mesosphere. The document explains how to simulate the three main types of plate boundaries - divergent, convergent, and transform - by manipulating the cookies in different ways. It describes how the cookies and filling interact and change shape during each simulation to represent geological processes at each boundary type on Earth.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Oreo Lab and Plate Tectonics HW

    Uploaded by

    Dwayne Heart Hernández
    1K views3 pages
    This document describes an experiment using Oreo cookies to simulate plate tectonic boundaries. The upper cookie represents the lithosphere, the creamy filling represents the asthenosphere, and the lower cookie represents the mesosphere. The document explains how to simulate the three main types of plate boundaries - divergent, convergent, and transform - by manipulating the cookies in different ways. It describes how the cookies and filling interact and change shape during each simulation to represent geological processes at each boundary type on Earth.

    Original Description:

    Science Geology about Plates

    Original Title

    Oreo Lab and Plate Tectonics HW (1)

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    This document describes an experiment using Oreo cookies to simulate plate tectonic boundaries. The upper cookie represents the lithosphere, the creamy filling represents the asthenosphere, and the lower cookie represents the mesosphere. The document explains how to simulate the three main types of plate boundaries - divergent, convergent, and transform - by manipulating the cookies in different ways. It describes how the cookies and filling interact and change shape during each simulation to represent geological processes at each boundary type on Earth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views3 pages

    Oreo Lab and Plate Tectonics HW

    Uploaded by

    Dwayne Heart Hernández
    This document describes an experiment using Oreo cookies to simulate plate tectonic boundaries. The upper cookie represents the lithosphere, the creamy filling represents the asthenosphere, and the lower cookie represents the mesosphere. The document explains how to simulate the three main types of plate boundaries - divergent, convergent, and transform - by manipulating the cookies in different ways. It describes how the cookies and filling interact and change shape during each simulation to represent geological processes at each boundary type on Earth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Name: ___________________________________ Date: ___________________

    Oreo Cookies and Plate Tectonics


    Amateur geologists can simulate how plates move on the Earth’s surface.

    The term tectonics originates from the Greek word “tektõn,” referring to
    a builder or architect. Plate tectonics suggests that large features on
    Earth’s surface, such as continents, ocean basins, and mountain ranges,
    result from interactions along the edges of large plates of Earth’s outer
    shell. This outer shell is called the lithosphere from the Greek “lithos,”
    meaning hard rock. The plates, composed of Earth’s crust and uppermost
    mantle, ride on a warmer, softer layer of the mantle, called the asthenosphere.
    Lower Cookie
    In our experiment, the upper cookie will represent the lithosphere, the creamy filling the
    asthenosphere, and the lower cookie the mesosphere. Label the Oreo Diagram below.

    Upper Cookie

    Creamy Filling

    Plates move in three basic ways. Let’s look at them one by one.

    Choose a cookie. Don’t eat it…yet!

    1. First, carefully remove the upper cookie (a “twisting” motion is


    required).
    2. Slide the upper cookie over the creamy filling. This motion
    simulates the movement of a rigid ________________________
    plate over the softer ____________________________.
    3. Next, break the upper cookie in half. As you do so, listen to the
    sound it makes. What does that breaking represent?
    _______________________________________________________

    Divergent Boundaries
    Let’s look at divergent plate boundaries. Divergent means _____________________________________.
    1. Now slide the two pieces apart and gently push down on both. What happens to the creamy
    filling? ________________________________________________________________________
    2. The creamy filling between the two broken “plates” may tend to flow upward. When two plates
    move apart at a divergent boundary, the magma underneath decompresses and flows upward
    also. This creates a __________________________________.
    3. True or False. Divergent boundaries cause lots of earthquakes.

    Convergent boundaries
    Now let’s look at convergent plate boundaries. Convergent
    means ______________________________.

    1. Take the two cookie halves and slowly push them toward
    each other. What happens to the filling as the plates slide
    together? ______________________________________
    ______________________________________________

    2. What happens to the cookies as they push against each other? ___________________________

    3. As one cookie (plate) moves underneath the other we call it _____________________________.

    At convergent plate boundaries, the cold, brittle lithosphere extends to


    great depths, and deep earthquakes occur. The very largest
    earthquakes are at subduction zones where two plates get stuck
    together for centuries, then suddenly let go.

    Transform boundaries
    1. Now let’s look at a transform plate boundary. Try sliding the two cookie
    pieces laterally past one another, over the creamy filling. What do you notice
    about the cookie edges?
    ______________________________________________________________

    You can feel and hear that the “plates” do not slide smoothly past
    one another, but rather stick then let go, stick then let go. The
    cracking sound you hear each time is like an earthquake occurring
    along the San Andreas Fault in California.

    2. True or False. Transform Boundaries are very geologically active, causing


    many earthquakes.
    Plate Boundaries
    Name __________________________________

    Fill in the chart below. Use your plate boundaries notes if you need help.

    Draw what the Oreo Movement of the Resulting Landform or


    Boundary Type
    Looked like Plates (Directions) Geologic Activity

    Transform

    Divergent

    Convergent:
    Continent – Continent

    Convergent:
    Continent – Oceanic

    Convergent:
    Oceanic – Oceanic

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