UP:SC15.ESS.7

Students know:

Plate movements are responsible for most continental and ocean-floor features and for the distribution of most rocks and minerals within Earth's crust.
Spontaneous radioactive decays follow a characteristic exponential decay law.
Radiometric dating is used to determine the ages of rocks and other materials.
The youngest rocks are at the top, and the oldest are at the bottom in an undisturbed column of rock, .
Rock layers have sometimes been rearranged by tectonic forces and the rearrangements can be seen or inferred, such as inverted sequences of fossil types.

Students are able to:

Organize data that represents patterns that can be attributed to plate tectonic activity and formation of new rocks.
Measure ratio of parent to daughter atoms produced during radioactive decay as a means for determining the ages of rocks.
Use analyzed data to determine age and location of continental rocks, ages and locations of rocks found on opposite sides of mid-ocean ridges, and the type and location of plate boundaries relative to the type, age, and location of crustal rocks.

Students understand that:

Plate tectonics is the unifying theory that explains the past and current movements of the rocks at Earth's surface and provides a framework for understanding its geologic history.
At the boundaries where plates are moving apart, such as mid-ocean ridges, material from the interior of the Earth must be emerging and forming new rocks with the youngest ages.
The regions furthest from the plate boundaries (continental centers) will have the oldest rocks because new crust is added to the edge of continents at places where plates are coming together, such as subduction zones.
The oldest crustal rocks are found on the continents because oceanic crust is constantly being destroyed at places where plates are coming together, such as subduction zones.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Patterns