Which force helps Greenlad to drift towards NorthAmerica?

Question

Is the distance between England and Greenland increasing?

I have read in a book that "Greenland is drifting towards NorthAmerica and the distance between England and Greenland is increasing"

Answer 1

the distance between greenland and england is increasing due to the plate movements on the asthenosphere.

Answer 2

If it is, then I believe it is because of something called plate tectonics. The earth's crust (the relatively thin top layer, between 5 and 50km thick) is broken up into a number of large plates. These plates correspond very roughly to the large continents and the surrounding oceans. They, and the next layer down (the mantle) drift very slowly over time, changing the position of the continents in relationship to each other. As they try to shift, tension builds up between them, and it is when the suddenly slip a little that we experience earthquakes (this is a pretty simplified explanation, by the way).

Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tecto...

and for a very cool animation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pange...

Answer 3

In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there is a Mid-Atlantic Trench.

Magma comes out of this trench very slowly, and cools. This trnch is the cause of a Sea floor spreading. Sea floor spreading is gradually pushing Europe away from the US and Greenland, because as new magma comes out of the trench, it expands the sea floor.

Here is a picture:

http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/JRD/SCHOOL/im...

The lighter blue line in the middle of the ocean is the mid-atlantic trench. The white arrows also indicate sea floor spreading.