Earth's Layers & Plate Tectonics

Subject: Science  ·  Grade level: 8th

Earth's layers and the giant plates that build mountains and trigger earthquakes. Continents drift a few centimeters a year — the same speed your fingernails

In this lesson

• Earth's four layers
• Tectonic plates
• Three kinds of boundaries

Key terms

Plate boundary

Where two plates meet — most earthquakes and volcanoes happen here.

Pangaea

The supercontinent that existed about 300 million years ago.

Earth's Layers & Plate Tectonics lesson on BrightPath

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