Modeling Mantle Convection Currents

In my science class we did a lab to see what convection currents do. What we did was we put hot water in a cup and put it at the bottom of a big container of cold water. The hot water symbolized the mantle.

The guiding question is "How might convection in Earth's mantle affect tectonic plates", and my hypothesis was "I think that when we poke the holes it will shoot out the water because it is hot and it will make the plates come together.  My hypothesis was correct. When I poked the holes the water came out slowly but the bits that came up when they cooled the currents went down and that happened with all of the currents. When that happened I could notice that the little pieces of paper I put on the top were moving very slowly together. My hypothesis was almost spot on, the only difference was that the water came out slowly it did not shoot out. When the water came out it was because warm water is less dense that cold water so it went up above the cold water and after that it cooled fast and went back down and I could see it because I put food coloring in it.



The pieces of paper in the large container acted as small tectonic plates. The little cup of hot water acts as the mantle. I think that this lab is a really good way of representing how the plates move. In some ways it is the same and those ways are that the water comes out just like magma and then cools the same way, and they both move the plates. The ways that they are different are that there are too many pieces of paper and there are not that many tectonic plates, the magma is much hotter, and the temperature of the water changes every where.

Mapping Earthquakes and Volcanoes

In my science class  we started a little project to see where volcanoes and earthquakes normally are.

The guiding question was, "Is there a pattern in the location of earthquakes and volcanoes"? My hypothesis was
" I think that volcanoes form on transforming, diverging, and converging boundaries because the ground would be weak". I think my answer was in a way correct, but I noticed that the earthquakes and volcanoes were also close to each other. My other guess now is that when there is an earthquake it sets of a volcano. I noticed that all the volcanoes and earthquakes are either on or close by a plate boundary.


The volcanoes and the earthquakes are close together and they are on or close to plate boundaries. Now I think that they are by the plate boundaries because when the plates move it makes the ground a bit more weak so the magma can get out and form volcanoes.Earthquakes happen there when the plates move apart, come together, and slide past each other which causes earthquakes. I also think that the volcanoes and earthquakes are situated by each other because an earthquake might set off a volcano or the other way around. If I added more earthquakes to the map I think the pattern would stay the same because it makes sense that the volcanoes and earthquakes are by the plate boundaries. The movement of them can set each of them off.