Explain the Causes of Tectonic Plate Movement and How the Processes of Folding, Faulting and Volcanism Have Shaped New Zealand Landforms

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Sheuk-Yeeng Tan Explain the causes of tectonic plate movement and how the processes of folding, faulting and volcanism have shaped New Zealand landforms The cause of the tectonic plate movement is when the plates 'float' on the molten rock magma and as the core of the Earth heats up the materials inside, the molten magma also gets heated up. The heat causes convection currents (a movement of rising and sinking caused by heat, inside the molten magma). The magma will rise and spread out across the surface, then cools and sinks, dragging along the plates 'attached' to it at intervals, causing Plate Tectonics. A fold is the process of tectonic plates folding to create mountains and hills and terrains. It is caused by two or more tectonic plates pushing against each other and causing folds, like pushing two ends of a piece of paper together. A fault is a fracture or break in the Earth's crust along a line of weakness, which are created by pressure or thinness of plates and cause large fault lines. Volcanism is the process of volcanoes and is mainly caused by faults. The tectonic plate movements are caused by molten rock moving deep below the Earth’s core which causes the tectonic plate on top to glide around. The Earth’s crust is broken into large pieces called tectonic plates, they are constantly moving across the planet’s surface but at a very slow speed. They are moved by hot rocks in the lower part of the mantle which rise up through the cooler layers of mantle, as they cool and flow sideways pulling the plates with them, this is called convection. Pangea was a super-continent. It existed over two hundred million years ago when the planet only had one large continent. An example of a destructive plate boundary (also known as convergent boundary) in New subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Australian Plate and Tonga Plate, forming the complex New Zealand to
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