Comments on: Simulate plate tectonics?

Question: Simulate plate tectonics?

argybarg — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:25:45 -0800

Has anyone made or seen a good physical model for plate tectonics?

I'd like to let kids in a 4th-grade classroom simulate the creation of landforms by pushing slippery plates (I'm imagining wax) together, but I can't work out all the details. How would they slide? Could the plates drift (slowly) under their own power? Could I add heat to this process to provide the slipperiness and energy?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:32:27 -0800

I don't know, maybe a solid wax skin on top of a pool of melted wax. It seems like you'd need to get the temperature *just* right, though.

If you could find some way to keep the top of the wax cold, and have some of the wax inside hot, maybe you could get stuff like volcanos or something like that, although I doubt it.

You might want to use ice, though, because as wax melts it gets softer, rather then going from rigid to liquid

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:44:52 -0800

You could get blocks of canning wax (Gulf Wax) and place them on a dish on a hot plate to demonstrate how the plates slide around. As for how they crash together, I've seen a demo where layers of colored play doh or modeling clay were made into two blocks and then rammed together pushing them downwards or upwards where they meet.

By: cyphill

cyphill — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 10:12:50 -0800

Bill Nye once used two cookies floating over colored liquid or wax. That seemed to work pretty well, plus the kids can eat the cookies.

By: michaelkuznet

michaelkuznet — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:01:23 -0800

For a more hands-on experience, my Earth Science teacher just used graham crackers on top of marshmallow paste or something. On preview, cyphill's got the idea, just not as yummy.