Science Convection and the Mantle

The transfer of heat within a material or between materials that are touching. Ex. Handle of a pan heats up when the bottom of the pan is put on a heat source. A spoon resting on the pan, or in any heated substance in the pan, heats up.

Conduction

The transfer of heat by movement of fluid. It happens in the mantle.

Convection

The movement of fluid caused by the differences in temperature. Transference of heat from one part of a fluid to another.

Convection Current

The volume of mass in a given space.

Density

When you heat soup on a stove, the soup at the bottom of the pot gets hot and expands. As it expands, its density decreases. The warm, less dense soup above the heat source moves upward and floats over the cooler, more dense soup. A constant flow begins. Cooler denser soup sinks and warmer less dense soup rises. (boiling)

Give an example of a convection current.

Heating and cooling of a fluid, changes in the fluid's density, and the force of gravity combine to set __________________ in motion.

How are convection currents set in motion?

Heat from the core and the mantle itself causes convection currents in the mantle.

How does convection occur in Earth's mantle?

Three types of ______________: radiation, convection, and conduction

How is heat transferred?

Heat and pressure in the mantle have caused soled mantle rock to warm and flow very slowly. Geologists think plumes of mantle rock slowly rise from the bottom to the top. The hot rock then cools and sinks back through the mantle.

How is it possible for mantle rock to flow?

The transfer of energy (heat) through space. Ex. Heated air coming out of a heat vent.

Radiation

Without heat, the convection currents eventually stops. No difference in density = no convection current.

What happens to the convection currents in the mantle if the Earth's interior eventually cooled down?

rainwater and melted snow is cool and denser and sinks to the bottom of the hot spring where it is heated by a shallow magma chamber. The heated water expands and is less dense and rises to the top

What might cause a convection current in a hot spring?

A substance that flows such as liquid or gas

fluid

A form of energy that is transferred by a difference in temperature.

heat

heated water is less dense than melted snow

heated water is (more/less) dense than melted snow