What's More What's inside the Earth's Mantle? wodochina obduction mud-occan ridge Mastic comffian rogestion Cors Figure A. Convection sis cool and pios arex am Figure B. Conduction Figure A shows a convection cell, warm material rises (up to the surface of the earth) and cool material sinks. These cooled materials will eventually turn to land formation. In mantle convection, the heat source is the core. The core of the earth is very hot. It is nearly as hot as the surface of the sun - about 6000*C. Convection current is relevant to the movement of tectonic plate because the heat builds up pressure underneath the crust (tectonic plates). As they become unstable, they push against each other (subduction) and rise upwards or one goes under the other. Figure B shows the process of conduction on how air molecules come in contact with the warmer surface of the land or ocean, resulting to the increase of its thermal energy through conduction. The thermal energy of the core is transferred to the surface of the earth and the lower levels of ocean by conduction.​