Convection Currents Lesson

What are Convection Currents?

• The transfer of thermal energy by the movement of a fluid

• The soft layer of the mantle on which the tectonic plates move

• The movement of a fluid, caused by differences in temperature, that transfers heat from one part of the fluid to another.

• An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced;

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Convection currents transfer heat from one place to another by mass motion of a fluid such as water, air or molten rock.

• True

• False

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Convection Currents are a deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle.

• True

• False

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What do Convection Currents look like?

• 
• 

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What causes a Convection Current?

• Plates at our planet's surface move because of the intense heat in the Earth's core that causes molten rock in the mantle layer to move.

• Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes generated in a subduction zone, an area where an oceanic plate is being forced down into the mantle

• Lighter less dense warm material rises while heavier more dense cool material sinks. It is that movement that creates circulation patterns in the atmosphere, in water, and in the mantle of Earth.

• Scientists think convection currents are what cause Earth's plates to move. A convection current is causedby differences in temperature. Mantle material close to Earth's core is very hot. Mantle material near the lithosphere is cooler.

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What effect is true about Convection Currents?

• Convection drives the circulation of air in the earth’s atmosphere.

• As the cool molecules move down they heat up and begin to rise. This cycle goes on over and over again known as a convection current. In the Earth this happens in the magma in the mantle.

• Convection currents transfer heat from one place to another by mass motion of a fluid such as water, air or molten rock.

• Lighter less dense warm material rises while heavier more dense cool material sinks. It is that movement that creates circulation patterns known as convection currents in the atmosphere, in water, and in the mantle of Earth.

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What facts are true about Convection Currents?

• Convection currents rely on the constant cyclical motion of air, water and other substances to distribute heat.

• It describes one of the earliest ways geologists thought continents moved over time.

• The land on Earth is constantly moving. Over millions of years, the continents broke apart from a single landmass called Pangea and moved to their present positions.

• Convection currents transfer heat from one place to another by mass motion of a fluid such as water, air or molten rock.

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The transfer of energy through empty space is called...

• Conduction

• Radiation

• Convection

• Subduction

The cycle that powers the ocean currents, weather, and tectonic plates it called...

• Convection Currents

• Condition Current

• Radiation

• Conduction Currents

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Warm air is __________ dense than cold air and rises creating convection currents...

• More

• Less

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