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It's only soft and plastic in that it is not as hard as the brittle rock of the crust and uppermost mantle which comprises the lithosphere (which comprises the continental and oceanic plates). Mostly composed of solid rock, nearly 5% of the upper mantle (asthenosphere) is molten. It doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to allow the rock to behave in a highly viscous manner; in other words, in can bend and move without breaking. The heat being generated from the interior of the Earth causes convection currents in this layer of the mantle. Rock rises slowly toward the surface at divergent plate boundaries, moves laterally causing plate movements (there is some disagreement here among scientists on the cause and effect relationship) and sinks back into the depths of the mantle when it has cooled and become more dense. At greater depths, the mantle is more solid, as the pressures become too intense for melt to occur.

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