Convection Currents

(the picture's a little blurry, but everything is explained below; this is just for an arrow/direction of heat currents visual)

Here's a review of what we talked about on Friday:

Much like the lava lamp example, in the Earth's mantle heat rises and as the air cools it sinks back down. Radioactive heat in the Earth's core causes heat to rise to the lithosphere. As the heat gets further away from its source, it cools and sinks back down towards the core. This heat flow is called the "convection cell."

Plate movement in the lithosphere is affected by these heat currents. If heat in two "cells" travels towards each other (think two arrows to represent the cool air currents pointing towards each other) then a converging boundary is created. If the "cells" (or arrows) are facing away from each other, then a divergent boundary is formed.