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Chapter Three Plate Tectonics

The document discusses plate tectonics and the evidence that supports it. It describes how Alfred Wegener first proposed continental drift in 1912, and how post-WWII ocean exploration led to the theories of sea floor spreading and plate tectonics. The key features of plate tectonics are that the Earth's surface is made up of crustal plates that move due to convection currents in the mantle, leading to plate boundaries like mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones.

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Saad Ramadan
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210 views37 pages

Chapter Three Plate Tectonics

The document discusses plate tectonics and the evidence that supports it. It describes how Alfred Wegener first proposed continental drift in 1912, and how post-WWII ocean exploration led to the theories of sea floor spreading and plate tectonics. The key features of plate tectonics are that the Earth's surface is made up of crustal plates that move due to convection currents in the mantle, leading to plate boundaries like mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones.

Uploaded by

Saad Ramadan
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 3

Plate Tectonics
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
 1912, Alfred Wegener, a Meteorologist, proposed a theory of
Continental Drift: about 200 million years ago all the continents
were connected into a super-continent called PANGAEA.

 After World War II, advancement in the exploration of oceans


occurred. These explorations lead to the discovery of “mid-
oceanic ridges” that are at the center of oceanic basins. Based
on those discoveries, the theory of sea-floor spreading was
formed. This theory states that:
 the seafloor spreads
 fresh lava fills the void created and forms new oceanic crust.

 Plate Tectonics integrates continental drift, sea floor spreading,


and seismic zones.
Evidence used in support of continental
drift hypothesis

 Fit of South America and Africa


 Fossils match across the seas
 Rock types and structures match
 Ancient climates
Geographic Fit of
the Continents
Matching of Mountain Ranges
on Different Continents
Climatic Evidence for Continental Drift
MID-OCEAN RIDGES
 A mid-ocean ridge is a general term for an underwater mountain
system

 The uplifted seafloor results from convection currents which rise in


the mantle as magma at a linear weakness in the oceanic crust, and
emerge as lava, creating new crust upon cooling. A mid-ocean ridge
demarcates the boundary between two tectonic plates

 Mid-ocean ridges are geologically active, with new magma


constantly emerging onto the ocean floor along the ridge axes.

 The crystallized magma forms new crust of basalt and gabbro

 The rocks making up the crust below the sea floor are youngest at
the axis of the ridge and age with increasing distance from that
axis.

 The ridges rise 3000 meters from the ocean floor and are more than
2000 kilometers wide surpassing the Himalayas in size.
MID-OCEAN RIDGE

Magnetic Stripping

 Periodically, the Earth's magnetic field reverses. New rock formed


from magma records the orientation of Earth's magnetic field at the
time the magma cools.

 Study of the sea floor with magnometers revealed "stripes" of


alternating magnetization parallel to the mid-oceanic ridges.

 This is evidence for continuous formation of new rock at the ridges.


As more rock forms, older rock is pushed farther away from the
ridge, producing symmetrical stripes to either side of the ridge.
Sea- Floor Spreading
Plate Tectonic Theory
The main features of plate tectonics are:

 The Earth's surface is covered by a series of crustal plates

 The ocean floors are continually moving, spreading from the


center, sinking at the edges, and being regenerated.

 Convection currents beneath the plates move the crustal


plates in different directions

 The source of heat driving the convection currents is


radioactivity deep in the Earths mantle

 There are seven major plates and several smaller ones

 Plates are in motion and continually changing in shape and


size (very slowly – 5 cm/year)
EARTH’S MAJOR PLATES
Volcanic Activity

• A volcanic arc is a chain of volcanoes positioned in an arc shape


as seen from above.

• They result from the subduction of an oceanic tectonic plate under


another tectonic plate, and often parallel to an oceanic trench.

• As the oceanic plate is subducted, it is subjected to greater and


greater pressures with increasing depth. Here the mantle melts and
forms magma at depth under the overriding plate. The magma
ascends to form an arc of volcanoes parallel to the subduction
zone.

• The circum-Pacific Ring of Fire is the most often sited example


PLATE BOUNDARIES
Types of plate boundaries:
 Divergent plate boundaries
 Convergent plate boundaries
 Transform fault boundaries
Plate Motions
1- Divergence
 Marked by the movements of plates away from one another either in
the crest of oceanic ridge or the continental rift. The actual movement
can be oblique or perpendicular to the boundary between adjacent
plates.
2- Convergence

 Relative movement that brings adjacent plates towards each other.


Plates in convergence are in constant competition for space.

 Solution: Structural decent of one plate beneath another. The rock


is “swallowed: to greater depths through a tectonic process known
as subduction. Another response of plates to space problems is
Collision.
Subduction Zones

 Convergent plate boundaries are normally marked by the slow


decent of one plate beneath the other, heavier plate is swallowed
into mantle

 The decent of one plate under the other during subduction causes
seismic activity that is reflected by severe earthquake activity

 Earthquake foci can project as deep as 700 km.


Convergent Boundaries
Types of convergent boundaries
1- Oceanic-continental convergence
2- Oceanic-oceanic convergence
3- Continental-continental convergence

1
2
3
The collision of India and Asia
produced the Himalayas
The Hawaiian Islands have
formed over a stationary hot spot
3- Transform
 Transform boundaries are where a plate moves past another in a
horizontal direction.
 In the figure plates A and B are separating, the ridge crest which
mark the zone of spreading is offset by the transform fault.
Transform Boundaries

SAN ANDREAS

Causes Major Earthquakes in


California

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