Plate Tectonics Demonstrations

See also: Rocks, Mining and Resources

Plate tectonics demonstrations show how Earth’s crust is divided into moving plates that shape mountains, earthquakes, and volcanoes. They bring a sense of motion to geological processes that are usually too slow to observe directly.

Demonstration	Materials	Difficulty	Safety	Summary
Gelatin Volcano Model	★☆☆	★★☆	★☆☆	A cup of gelatin represents country rock while pudding, yogurt, or sauce injected into it simulates magma. As the “magma” intrudes and erupts, the activity models subsurface magmatism, intrusive rock formations, and surface volcanism.
Simulating a Tsunami	★★★	★★☆	★☆☆	A clear Lucite tank is constructed with a hinged flap to simulate undersea disturbances that generate tsunamis. By raising and lowering the flap, waves are created that move toward a model beach, allowing observation of how tsunamis propagate and impact coastal areas.
Candy Bar Plate Tectonics	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	A layered candy bar models Earth’s brittle crust over a softer mantle. By cracking the chocolate surface and applying compression, tension, and shearing, students observe faulting and plate-boundary behaviors.
Crayons Rock Cycle	★☆☆	★☆☆	★★☆	Students use crayon shavings to model the rock cycle by forming sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Heat, pressure, and cooling are simulated to show how rocks change form over time.
Earthquake Shake Table	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Students design and build model “buildings” from toothpicks and mini marshmallows, then test them on a pan of Jell-O/jelly that simulates shaking ground. By iterating their designs, they discover features (for example, cross-bracing, wide bases, tapered shapes) that improve earthquake performance.
Fold Mountains With Towels	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Stacked towels are used to represent rock layers. Pushing the stack from opposite sides compresses the layers into folds and ridges, modeling how converging tectonic plates create fold mountains and valleys near faults.
Lava Flow Races	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Students simulate volcanic lava flows using golden syrup to represent liquid lava. By adding sprinkles (crystals) and marshmallows (rock fragments), they investigate how cooling and crystal formation increase lava’s viscosity and slow its movement.
Modelling Faults with Layered Clay	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Clay layers are stacked and cut to represent the Earth’s crust along a fault line. By pushing on the edges, the clay buckles and slips, showing how earthquakes occur along faults.
Pangaea Puzzle	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	In this activity, students use fossil evidence, rock strata, and continental shapes to reconstruct how Earth’s continents were once joined together as the supercontinent Pangaea about 220 million years ago. By piecing together cutouts of landmasses, they explore the evidence supporting plate tectonics.
Seafloor Spreading Model	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Students build a paper model to demonstrate how new ocean crust forms at mid-ocean ridges through seafloor spreading and is consumed at ocean trenches, helping visualize the cycle of crust creation and destruction.
See Convection Currents	★☆☆	★☆☆	★★☆	A small container of hot, colored water is placed in a larger container of cold water. The warm water rises and circulates through the cold water, creating visible convection currents that illustrate heat transfer and density differences.
Slinky Seismic Waves	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	This activity uses one or two slinkies to model how earthquakes generate P-waves, S-waves, and surface waves. The simple demonstration helps students visualize how energy travels through the Earth and why surface waves cause the most damage during earthquakes.
Soil Liquefaction and Earthquakes	★☆☆	★☆☆	★☆☆	Students investigate how different soil types - sand, peat, and topsoil - respond to shaking when saturated with water. By placing a model “house” on each soil type and simulating earthquake motion, they observe liquefaction effects and determine which soils provide the most stability.

Materials
★☆☆ Easy to get from supermarket or hardware store
★★☆ Available in most school laboratories or specialist stores
★★★ Requires materials not commonly found in school laboratories

Difficulty
★☆☆ Can be easily done by most teenagers
★★☆ Available in most school laboratories or specialist stores
★★★ Requires a more experienced teacher

Safety
★☆☆ Minimal safety procedures required
★★☆ Some safety precautions required to perform safely
★★★ Only to be attempted with adequate safety procedures and trained staff