A good question from one of my primary students!

Trotter

One of my primary students asked a question today that maybe you could help me with.

Sorry if this is in the wrong area by the way!

It refers to the moving of the plates on earth.. i.e. continental drift.

We were considering whether the Irish and British land masses were once combined and figured that they were at one point as part of Pangea.

The question then arose.. How could Ireland and Britain move apart due to continental drift if they are in the middle of the Eurasian plate and not at the edges of two separate plates??

Good Q I thought!! I'm not sure if I know the proper answer!! Im thinking its due to a combination of erosion and movement of different rock foundations but Im not exactly sure.

Any help would be gratefully received!

arctictree

As far as I know, Ireland and Britain where joined simply because sea levels where lower and most of the Irish sea was dry land, not becuase they moved relative to each other.

A

Creature

I think it's due to rifting where a section of the crust is displaced downward (in this case the Irish sea).