Why are continents moving and has this always happened?

The continents are large land areas that dominate the background of the nearby archipelagos and islands. Of course, this is a general definition. If we consider the continents from the point of view of science, then it is not only land areas, but also the offshore shelf, which is one with the mainland, but has long been hidden under water as a result of flooding. Often children have questions, for example, about why the continents are moving? Let's see if this is really so.

Liquid magma and solid land

To understand why the continents are moving, one should study the structure of the planet. So, what is a firm land? First of all, this is part of the earth's crust. Hard land is only a thin layer of different rocks, which hide under itself a hot magma. The thickness of the earth's crust can vary greatly. For example, under the thickness of the ocean the depth of hard rocks can be from 13 to 350 kilometers, and the depth of liquid magma is almost 5000 kilometers. The difference, of course, is significant.

Why is magma liquid? The main reason is the high temperature, which is released as a result of thermonuclear reactions taking place in the core of the planet. The substance becomes very hot. In this case, the movement of magma from the center to the earth's crust is observed, where the processes of its cooling take place. Convection is constantly observed in the liquid layer, which are fixed by satellite magnetometers. This phenomenon allows us to answer the question of why the continents are moving. Brief description of such processes allows you to fully imagine the picture of what is happening.

The main cause of the movement of the continents

So, why are the continents moving? The answer to this question is quite simple. The convection that occurs inside the magma is chaotic. Very often in certain areas less activity is shown than in others. It is worth noting that the rise of magma proceeds under great pressure and very slowly. However, when such phenomena occur, a large amount of kinetic energy is released. All this has a definite effect on the hard land.

Magma carries out cyclic movements. It pushes the fragments of the surface exactly in the direction where the impulse is present. That's why the continents are moving. In other words, the surface displacement of a solid land is associated with processes that occur inside our planet right up to its core.

How the continents move

The reason why the continents are moving has been established long ago. Specialists note that the displacement of hard land is insignificant. In a year continents can move only one centimeter. However, the energy that is released during the course of such processes is much greater than that capable of developing a network of power plants.

It was found that glaciers influence the movement of the continents. In some places, the ice shell of Antarctica is able to press the surface of the earth's crust up to two and a half kilometers into the interior. As a result, the displacement of the continents slows down considerably.

Have the continents always moved

The movement of the earth's crust did not begin immediately, because at first our planet was a liquid molten sphere. Gradually the Earth cooled down, its surface was covered with a hard crust, and only after 500 million years continents were formed. The resulting land cracked under the pressure of hot magma. Thus, future elements of the surface were formed. Those that were located higher, began to form land. Part of the plates, due to a rather large weight, plunged deep into the planet and became oceanic. Under the influence of magma, the earth's crust moved. These processes lasted about 3 and a half billion years. Plates collided, rose and pushed. As a result, oceans, seas and continents have formed, which exist at the moment.