What is tectonic plates?

Types of Plate Boundaries:

-a theory which suggests that Earth’s crust A. Divergent Plate Boundary

Sometime Subdivided into three categories: -A region where the crustal plates are moving
➢ Major or Primary Plates apart.
➢ Minor or Secondary Plates 2 Types of Divergent Plate Boundary:
➢ Microplates or Tertiary Plates
• Rift valleys- A lowland region that
Major Plates/Primary Plates- are those forms where Earth’s tectonic plates
types of plates that comprise the bulk of the move part, or rift.
continents and the Pacific ocean.
• Oceanic Ridge- Where new ocean floor
7 types of Major Plates: is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates
spread apart.
• Pacific Plate
• African Plate B. Convergent Plate Boundary
• Eurasian Plate -A boundary in which two plates move toward
• South American Plate each other.
• Indo-Australian Plate
3 Types of Convergent Plate Boundary:
• North American Plate
• Antarctic Plate Continental and Oceanic
Minor/Secondary Plate- are plates with an • Earthquake
area of less than 20million square km but not
• Submarine Valleys
greater than 1 million square km.
• Volcanic Island Arc
7 types of Minor Plates:
• Trench/es
• Sea Plate or Philippine Plate
• Nazca Plate Oceanic and Oceanic
• Carribean Plate • Less dense
• Arabian Plate
• Scotia Plate • Tsunamis
• Cocos Plate • Volcanic Island Arc
• Juan De Fuca Plate
• Earthquake
2 types of crust
Example: Formation of the Philippine
Formula: Archipelago
Continental and Continental
• Earthquake
• Mountains
• No trench
• No volcano
• No island
C. Transform Fault Boundary Trench- A depression in the seafloor produced
by subduction process.
-A boundary produced when two plates slide
past each other. Volcanic Island Arc- A chain of volcanoes that
develop parallel to a trench.
2 Types of Transform Fault Boundary

• Oceanic crust- The thin part of the

Earth’s crust not located under the SEISMIC WAVES
ocean.
- Mechanical vibrations that occur inside the
• Continental Crust- The thin part of the Earth.
Earth’s crust located under the oceans.
Main types of Seismic Waves:
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
• Surface Waves
Continental Volcanic arc- mountain formed in
part by igneous activity. Can only travel through the surface of the
Earth.
Earthquake- Vibration of earth due to the
rapid release of energy. Sub-Types:

Fault- A break in a rock along which • Love waves

movement has occurred.
Travel along the surface of the Earth from
Fracture- Any break in a rock in which no the point directly above the epicenter.
significant movement has taken place.
-Moves side to side, horizontal (snake)
Geology- The science that studies Earth.
• Rayleigh Waves
Hot spot- A concentration of heat in the
Travel along the free surface of an elastic
mantle capable of creating magma.
sloid such as the earth.
Magma- A mass of molten rock formed at
-Moves up & down, side to side
depth.
Main types of Seismic Waves:
Plates- Rigid sections of the lithosphere that
moves as a unit. • Body waves
Rocks- Consolidated mixture of minerals. Can travel through the Earth’s inner layers.
Seismogram- A record made by seismograph. Sub-Types:
Seismograph- A device used to record • Primary (P) Waves
Earthquake waves.
-Compressional Waves
Seismology- Is the study of Earthquakes and
-Can travel through solid, liquids, and gas
Seismic waves that move through and around
the earth. -Moves backward and forward
Seismologist- Is a scientist who studies • Secondary (S) Waves
earthquakes and seismic waves.
-Transverse Waves
Subduction- An event in which a slab of rock
-Slower than P waves
thrust into the mantle.
 -Can travel through solids only • Crust- is the outermost and thinnest
layer of the Earth.
- Moves side to side and back & forth
• Mantle- is the middle layer of the
earth.
THE COMPOSITIONS OF EARTH’S • Asthenosphere- is the weak layer of
INTERIOR the mantle.
• Outer core- is made up of molten
material.
• Inner core- is the deepest layer of the
earth.
• The speed, reflection and refraction
properties of seismic waves are used
by scientists to study the structure and
composition of the Earth’s Interior.
Table 1. Thickness of the different layers • Continental Drift Theory of Alfred
Layer Thickness in Km Wegener-states that the continents
Crust 40 were once a part of a large landmass
Mantle 2900 called Pangea.
Outer Core 2200 • Alfred Wegener- based his theory on
Inner Core 1278 evidences from fossils embedded in
rocks.
Table 2. Elements in the Earth’s Crust • Seafloor Spreading- is believed to occur
as hot magma rises at the rift in the
Element Percentage mid-ocean ridge.
Oxygen 46.60 GLOSSARY OF TERMS:
Silicon 27.72 • Convection Current- current in the
Aluminum 8.13 mantle due to the heat from the
inner layers of the Earth.
Iron 5.00 • Lithosphere- the topmost, solid part
Calcium 3.63 of the Earth.
• Lithospheric Plates- the moving,
Sodium 2.83 irregularly shaped slabs that fit
Potassium 2.59 together.
• Mid-Ocean Ridge- where new
Magnesium 2.09
ocean floor is formed when lava
Titanium 0.40 erupts.
• Mohorovicic Discontinuity (Moho)-
Hydrogen 0.14
the boundary that separates the
SUMMARY: crust & the mantle
• The Earth is composed of three main • Plasticity- the ability of solid to flow
layers: the crust, mantle and core • Tectonics- Branch of Geology that
( Inner & Outer ) deals with the movements that
shape the Earth’s Crust.