Physical Science:
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• The Earth’s tectonic plate boundaries are very visible, especially the Mid-Atlantic Rift down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
• Without the water, the continental shelf becomes obvious. For instance, England is not so much an island as it is higher land on the European continental shelf.
• Similarly, the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska is on the continental shelf and is quite shallow.
• Red (high) mountains occur in belts in areas around the world—they are not evenly distributed.
• Mountain belts (red, high) are generally on the edges of continents such as North America and South America, as they formed like bumpers on cars, or a bow wave in front of a moving boat. When a car runs into something, its bumper is crumpled, which is very analogous to deformed mountain belts where rocks are twisted and faulted by convergence of two plates.
• Old mountain belts in the middle of continents, like the Himalayan Mountains (India), or Zagros Mountains (Iran), or Ural Mountains (Russia) are old edges of plates where plates have been sutured together---much like a really bad scar from a serious cut. These mountains in the interior of continents record the closing of old ocean basins and deformation of whatever was in between, much like two cars in a head-on collision---they come together to make one big car with smashed bumpers and everything else in between.
• The symmetry of the Atlantic Ocean records the separation of Africa and Europe away from South America and North America. This shows the progressive rifting apart of these regions.
• The Appalachian Mountains would lead you to think the convergence had occurred---but how can this be when it is currently rifting away from Europe? The answer is that the Appalachians are a remnant of the former closing of the paleo-Atlantic, which happened before current the Atlantic started to open. This is analogous to a demolition derby -- two cars hit each other and then move away again, leaving space (ocean) in between and smashed bumpers on either side.
• The Pacific Ocean does not have same symmetry, which shows that it has a much more complex history. Half of the Pacific Ocean has disappeared beneath the Americas, which is partly how the mountain belts formed on North America and South America.
• Deformation is also accompanied by melting of oceanic plate as it goes beneath the continental plate, like a heavy flatbed truck (oceanic plate) backing into big, light RV (continental plate). Melting of the oceanic plate produces volcanoes and batholiths like the Sierra Nevadas in the continental plate (melted flatbed sends smoke and molten material up to the top of the RV)

• The United States
• The Middle East
• India and the Himalayast
• The Pacific Rim