I wonder if you could make a decent model of plate tectonics with wax. Have a pan of wax heated from below, deep enough that the top is cool enough to be solid.
Ooh, interesting! Perhaps if you cooled the top and heated the bottom quickly enough? The biggest problem is that the convective drag needs to be high enough to cause actual subduction. In my Earth Science class, I just add mica powder to water, heat it from below, and show them Rayleigh-Benard convection cells.
I wonder if you could make a decent model of plate tectonics with wax. Have a pan of wax heated from below, deep enough that the top is cool enough to be solid.
Ooh, interesting! Perhaps if you cooled the top and heated the bottom quickly enough? The biggest problem is that the convective drag needs to be high enough to cause actual subduction. In my Earth Science class, I just add mica powder to water, heat it from below, and show them Rayleigh-Benard convection cells.