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The continents are made up of the least dense minerals and elements, essentially the continents float in a 'sea' of denser rocks, which are involved in a slow process of convection within the Earth's Mantle. As this convection proceeds the continental rafts get moved across the face of the planet. The cores of continents (where they are exposed at the surface by erosion and uplift are composed of Metamorphic rocks with a chemical composition similar to that of Granite - they frequently show a metamorphic fabric and the term used to describe them is 'Banded Gneisses'

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What is the main rock type that that continental plates are made up of?

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