Inside the earth it’s hot – really hot. We know that because of the molten lava that spews from volcanoes. Also, in some places, you get hot springs and geysers. The earth isn’t a solid ball of rock. It’s made up of different layers like an apple. The skin/peel is the crust, the white fleshy part the mantle and where the seeds are the core.
The earth’s crust is divided into large pieces, called plates. It’s unstable because these plates move very slowly. The different plates meets at plate margins, or boundaries. There are four main types of plate margins:
Constructive – where the plates are moving apart
Conservative – where the plates slide past each other
Collision – where the plates push against each other often forming mountains – Himalayas
Destructive – where the plates collide
Excellent Animations – http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/EarthEnvironmentalSciences/EarthEnvironmentalSciences/Educational%20Materials/Documents/elearning/module06swf.swf