Make a model of the plates crashing and tearing away from each other. Mix up red gelatin dessert. When it is almost set, but not completely, place at least two graham crackers on top of the movable dessert. The dessert represents the mantle and the crackers represent the tectonic plates. Show how the plates crumble when they converge together. Show how the mantle comes between the plates when they diverge or move apart. Iceland is getting wider every year because of the divergent boundary located on the country.
The converging and diverging of the plates cause intense results. Earthquakes and volcanoes occur along the boundaries of the tectonic plates where the plates crash together. Ask children to map out major earthquakes and volcanoes that have occurred in the last 100 years. They will discover that many of the earthquakes and volcanoes fall in a pattern along the Ring of Fire, an area which arcs from the Chilean coast, up the California coast to Alaska, and then the line then heads along the coast of Japan, the Philippines and New Zealand. They will find that most of the major earthquakes and volcanoes are located along the Ring of Fire.
Fifty million years ago India collided with Asia which resulted in the plates converging and the Himalayan Mountains rising up in Tibet. The two continental plates crashing into each other only had one way to go, and that was up. Mount Everest is the highest point in the Himalayan Mountains and the highest point on Earth at 29,035 feet according to Extreme Science. It is still growing. Mount Everest grows 2.4 inches taller each year. Calculate how tall the tallest mountain in the world will be when your child is 50 years old.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an example of two oceanic divergent boundaries. Show the students a map of the Atlantic Ocean and identify the ridge. As the two plates pull apart from each other, a hot molten substance escapes from the opening. This substance hardens and forms new crust. The cycle repeats itself as the plates move apart, making the seafloor wider each year.