Actvity Worksheet - LMS-NAT22222

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.
In our experiment, the upper cookie will represent the lithosphere, the creamy filling the
asthenosphere, and the lower cookie the lower mantle.
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 lithospheric plate over the softer asthenosphere.
3. Next, break the upper cookie in half. As you do so, listen to the sound it makes.
What sound do you hear? _________________________________________
What does that breaking represent? ____________________________________________
4. Let’s look at divergent plate boundaries.
Divergent means __________________________________________________.
5. Now push down on the two broken cookie halves and slide them apart.
What happens to the creamy filling?
________________________________________________
6. Now let’s look at convergent plate boundaries.
Convergent means ___________________________
7. Take the two cookie halves and slowly push them toward each other.
What happens to the filling as the plates slide
together?__________________________
What happens to the cookies as they push against each
other?___________________________
8. 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.)
9. Some of Earth’s landforms are created by hotspots where a plate rides over a fixed “plume” of hot
mantle, creating a line of volcanoes. Imagine if a piece of hot, glowing coal were imbedded in the
creamy filling – a chain of “volcanoes” would be burned into the overriding
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Mapping Earthquakes and Volcanoes
I. Materials
outline world map showing longitude and latitude 4 pencils of different colors
II. Procedure
1. Use the information in the figure 1 to mark the location of each earthquake on the world
map on figure 2. Use one of the colored pencils to draw a letter E inside a circle at each earthquake
location.
2. Use a pencil of a second color to mark the locations of the volcanoes on the world map.
Indicate each volcano with the letter V inside a circle.
3. Use a third pencil to lightly shade the areas in which earthquakes are found.
4. Use a fourth colored pencil to lightly shade the areas in which volcanoes are found.
III. Analyze and Conclude

Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1. How are earthquakes distributed on the map?
Are they scattered evenly over Earth’s surface? Are they concentrated in definite zones?
2. How are volcanoes distributed? Are they scattered evenly or concentrated in zones?
3. From your data, what can you infer about the relationship between earthquakes and volcanoes?
4. Apply Based on the data, which area of the North American continent would have the greatest
risk of earthquake damage? Of volcano damage? Why would knowing this information be important
to urban planners, engineers, and builders in this area?
Figure 1
Figure 2
https://lessonworksheets.com/concept/volcanoes-and-earthquakes
Plate Boundaries
Data Analysis 1. Look
at Fig 1: Global
LithosphericPlates’
Relative Motion. 2.
Determine what type
of plate boundary
exists between each
of the two plates in
Table 1. 3. Describe
the type of stresses
that occur at the plate
boundaries in Table 1.
Use the three choices
diagramed below.
Questions
1. Where does the overwhelming amount of seismic activity occur on the Earth’s surface?
2. Explain why the term recycling is an excellent description of plate tectonics.
3. Explain how tectonic plate movement could create another supercontinent like Pangaea.
4. If the Earth’s core provides the heat that drives plate tectonics, then what will eventually happen
as the Earth’s core cools down over billions of years?
5. What are the various ways in which lithospheric plates interact with each other as they move
around on a dynamic Earth?
https://lessonworksheets.com/concept/plate-tectonics
Plotting Epicenter
Part I. The data below shows the P- and S-wave arrival time difference determined from
seismograms from three different cities, for three different earthquake events. Use your travel time
curve to determine the distance to epicenter for each city/earthquake.
Part II. Using the distance to epicenter information above, the map, and the map scale, plot the
location of each earthquake. This can be done by drawing circles with the appropriate radius around
the cities of record, and identifying where the circles intersect. Be careful to complete one
earthquake entirely before moving on to the next! Finally, record the epicenter location for each
earthquake below by identifying the closest city, and describing the direction N, S, E or W of that
city.
EARTHQUAKE 1: ____________________________________________
EARTHQUAKE 2: ____________________________________________
EARTHQUAKE 3: ____________________________________________
https://lessonworksheets.com/concept/earthquake-epicenter

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Oreo Cookies and Plate Tectonics

Choose a cookie. Don’t eat it…yet!

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

III. Analyze and Conclude

2. Explain why the term recycling is an excellent description of plate tectonics.

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