December, 2000
This month we take a peek at the debate on how heat is released from the interior of the Earth. For many years, seismologists (scientists who study earthquake waves) and geochemists (scientists who study the chemistry of the Earth) have held differing views about the structure of the mantle and how it convects or flows in response to heat released from the core. A new view is emerging that unifies the seismologists and geochemists. Two articles - one from Science News OnLine and one from Scientific American - discuss the new results. Read one or both!
Related Web Sites
The Earth's Interior and Plate Tectonics: An overview of Earth structure and the theory of plate tectonics. Mostly text, with some graphics. Good for background and vocabulary.
Convection in the Earth's Mantle: This is a Web-based animation of single-layer convection, illustrating the upward flow of hotter materials and downward flow of colder materials. Provided by Earth Sciences at Monash University.
Convection Currents: This animation illustrates convection within the Earth and its influence on the plates. Provided by the Learn2K project in New Zealand. Note that this figure assumes a single convection mantle!
The Inside Story: If you are interested in learning more about mantle convection, another story from Scientific American describes other experiments in computer modeling to understand how convection influences the plates and their movement.
Related Classroom Activities
Convection Currents: A teachers guide for a classroom demonstration of convection, using hot and cold water. From the Fort Bragg Unified School District.
The Earth At Work: This Web page is part of the PBS site Savage Earth. It uses text along with Flash animations to illustrate plate tectonics.
Heat on the Move: This Web site discusses convection in other contexts - the ocean and the atmosphere. Students are to prepare a poster on the "what, where, why, and how" of convection.
Science News Write-Up: Write a report on this article for your class! Here is a suggested outline to help you organize the report.
News Archive
Earth Science News Archive: We are building an archive of these news features. Feel free to browse earlier articles and resources!