SAASST News

Saturday, 27 February 2021 20:32

Digging into the Earth's Past

As part of its program to enhance astronomy education, the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology organized a lecture on "Digging into the Earth's Past" on Feb. 24, 2021. The lecture was given by Mrs. Salma Subhi, a research assistant at the SAASST Meteorite Laboratory. Mrs. Salma presented an in-depth analysis of Earth's past and its different formation stages, especially the tectonic plates system. She discussed how plates

move because of the intense heat in the Earth's core that causes molten rock in the mantle layer to move. It moves in a pattern called a convection cell that forms when warm material rises, cools, and eventually sinks. As the cooled material sinks, it is warmed and rises again. Mrs. Salma elaborated on the Pangaea as the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, before the process of plate tectonics separated each of the component continents into their current configuration. The name was coined by Alfred Wegener, the chief proponent of Continental Drift, in 1915.

The online workshop was attended by many students, faculty members, and the general public. This special lecture can be checked online through the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWlscmZUp08