Get National Geographic Colliding Continents Worksheet Answer Key

In geology, continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains produced, and two continents sutured together.

When continental crust collides, several things can happen, such as earthquakes, the creation of mountain ranges, and volcano formation. In other cases, continental crust can slide past each other, also contributing to volcano formation and earthquakes.

Asia and America Will Collide in Millions of Years to Form Supercontinent Amasia. In the next 50 to 200 million years, all of Earth's continents will be once again pushed together into a single landmass around the North Pole, a supercontinent called Amasia.

The processes of seafloor spreading, rift valley formation, and subduction (where heavier tectonic plates sink beneath lighter ones) were not well-established until the 1960s. These processes were the main geologic forces behind what Wegener recognized as continental drift.

The crust and the upper part of the mantle is called the lithosphere. It is rather like a jigsaw puzzle and is made up of large pieces called tectonic plates.

In 1912, German scientist Alfred Wegener proposed a theory he called continental drift. ing to Wegener's theory, Earth's continents once formed a single, giant landmass, which he called Pangaea. Over millions of years, Pangaea slowly broke apart, eventually forming the continents as they are today.

The continents are still moving today. Some of the most dynamic sites of tectonic activity are seafloor spreading zones and giant rift valleys. In the process of seafloor spreading, molten rock rises from within the Earth and adds new seafloor (oceanic crust) to the edges of the old.

When two continental plates collide, one is forced beneath the other. The uppermost plate undergoes breaking and uplift, often forming folded mountains. The Himalayas and Appalachians are two prime examples of mountain ranges formed due to continental collision.