Why are there marine fossils on top of Heart Butte Mountain?
ESS1-5 Evaluate evidence of the past and current movements of continental and oceanic crust and the theory of plate tectonics to explain the ages of crustal rocks.
Essential Vocabulary
crustal materials ratio of parent to daughter atoms mid-ocean ridges
plate tectonic activity radioactive decay plate boundaries
magma continental rocks subduction zones
Mariana_Trench.pdfAssignments
Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth Continental rocks, which can be older than 4 billion years, are generally much older than the rocks of the ocean floor, which are less than 200 million years old.
ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions 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. (ESS2.B Grade 8 GBE) (secondary)
PS1.C: Nuclear Processes Spontaneous radioactive decays follow a characteristic exponential decay law. Nuclear lifetimes allow radiometric dating to be used to determine the ages of rocks and other materials. (secondary)