What is geology?
Geology is the study of the Earth and the materials the Earth is made from. It is also concerned with the structures of these materials and the processes that act on them.
One of the main processes in geology is plate tectonics, this is the movement of the large plates that make up the crust of the earth. These huge plates are continually moving due to convection currents in the molten rock, known as magma, in the layer below the surface called the mantle.
By studying the materials and structures of an area we can tell a lot about movement of plates in the past. At various periods in the past, the Earth's geography has been very different to what it is today. Continents have moved together then apart and have reformed in various different arrangements. Due to the movement of the plates countries and continents as we know them now may once have had very different locations and may have been linked to very different areas.
Links below will allow you to explore the following themes:
