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The Earth's plates are lighter than the mantle. The top layer of the mantle is almost plastic in it's ability to bend and move without breaking. Heat from the interior of Earth appears to rise in currents through the mantle. The crustal plates ride on these currents as new crust is created at the mid-ocean ridges, and destroyed at oceanic trenches.

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15y ago
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12y ago

movement in the Earth's mantle

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Q: What caused the continental plate to move?
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Related questions

How is theory of plate tectonics similar to the continental drift?

continental drift is caused by plate tectonics


When a continental plates collide with another continental plate what it is caused?

Earthquake


Continental drift is caused by?

plate tectonics


How does seafloor spreading explain continental drift?

Seafloor spreading is caused by two plates moving apart. This is caused by plate tectonics. Continental drift is also caused by plate tectonics. Therefore, we can conclude that continental drift is related to seafloor spreading. When the plates move, it carries the continents with it, and thus the continents drift away from each other.


Describe the relationship of continental drift and plate tectonics?

The relationship of continental drift and plate tectonics is that the plate tectonics move and are under the ground and the continental drift is on the top of earth...


What happens in a continental plate?

the plates move apart


What type of boundary is the cascades?

The Cascade Range is formed along convergent plate boundaries. This is when plates move toward each other. more specifically the type of plate collision that caused the Cascades is an oceanic-continental convergence. This is when a plate with continental leading edge slowly collides with a plate that has an oceanic leading edge.


Why do oceanic plates move under continental plates when the two collide?

Oceanic plates move under continental plates when they converge together because the oceanic plate is more denser than the continental plate.


What is the mechanism that causes the continents to move called?

It is called the theory of plate tectonics.


What can be caused by geologic plate move?

Earthquakes


What happens when the nazca seafloor plate pushes into the so American continental plate?

the nazca plate will move under the south american plate.


When a continental crustal plate collides with an oceanic crustal plate the continental crust is forced to move over the oceanic crust What is the primary reason that the continental crust stays on?

Continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust.