Plate Tectonics

Can you feel the ground under your feet? Go ahead, stomp your feet. It feels very still and strong, doesn't it? But I have a secret for you. The whole world is always moving, very, very slowly, like a sleepy turtle taking a nap. Imagine the big, wide world is a giant jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle pieces are super big, so big that whole countries fit on them. I am the one who wiggles and jiggles all the puzzle pieces. It is the slowest, quietest dance you have ever seen. My name is Plate Tectonics, and I am the Earth’s slow, secret dance. I move everything, all the time, just a tiny bit. It is my special job to keep the puzzle moving.

For a long, long time, nobody knew about my secret dance. Then, a man named Alfred Wegener looked at a map of the world. He was very curious. He looked at the big puzzle pieces, which he called continents, and saw something amazing. He noticed that the pieces looked like they could fit together. He saw that one piece looked like it broke away from another. He imagined them all snuggled together as one giant piece of land called Pangea. At first, people thought it was a silly idea. They said, 'How could the big ground move?'. But later, they looked deep under the big blue ocean and found my secret pathways. They saw that Alfred was right all along. I was moving the puzzle pieces.

My slow dance makes our world a wonderful place to live. When I push two puzzle pieces together, I push the ground up, up, up. I make tall, pointy mountains where the fluffy white clouds can rest. When I pull two pieces apart, I make deep, wide oceans where shiny, colorful fish can swim and play hide-and-seek. Sometimes, I even let a little bit of warm rock pop up from under the sea to make brand new islands. It’s like a little surprise for the world. I am always changing and building our beautiful Earth, making it new and exciting. The Earth is always growing and changing, just like you are.