11

EARTH SCIENCE
QUARTER 2 – MODULE 11

Deformationof Crust
Introductory Message
For the facilitator:

Welcome to the Earth Science Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM) Module Deformation
of Crust.

This module was collaboratively designed, developed and reviewed by educators

both from public and private institutions to assist you, the teacher or facilitator in
helping the learners meet the standards set by the K to 12 Curriculum while
overcoming their personal, social, and economic constraints in schooling.

This learning resource hopes to engage the learners into guided and independent
learning activities at their own pace and time. Furthermore, this also aims to help
learners acquire the needed 21st century skills while taking into consideration their
needs and circumstances.

In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the body of
the module:

Notesto the Teacher

This contains helpful tips or strategies
that will help you in guiding the learners.

As a facilitator you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this module.
You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing them to manage
their own learning. Furthermore, you are expected to encourage and assist the
learners as they do the tasks included in the module.
For the learner:

Welcome to the Earth and Life Science Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM) Module on
Deformation of Crust.

The hand is one of the most symbolized part of the human body. It is often used to
depict skill, action and purpose. Through our hands we may learn, create and
accomplish. Hence, the hand in this learning resource signifies that you as a learner
is capable and empowered to successfully achieve the relevant competencies and
skills at your own pace and time. Your academic success lies in your own hands!

This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful opportunities for
guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You will be enabled to
process the contents of the learning resource while being an active learner.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

What I Need to Know This will give you an idea of the skills or
competencies you are expected to learn in
the module.
 What I Know This part includes an activity that aims to check what
you already know about the lesson to take.
If you get all the answers correct (100%), you may
decide to skip this module.

What’s In This is a brief drill or review to help you link the current lesson
with the previous one.

What’s New In this portion, the new lesson will be introduced to you
in various ways such as a story, a song, a
poem, a problem opener, an activity or a situation.

What is It This section provides a brief discussion of the lesson. This

aims to help you discover and understand
new concepts and skills.

What’s More This comprises activities for independent practice to

solidify your understanding and skills of
the topic. You may check the answers to the
exercises using the Answer Key at the end of the
module.

What I Have Learned This includes questions or blank

sentence/paragraph to be filled in to process what you
learned from the lesson.
What I Can Do This section provides an activity which will help you
transfer your new knowledge or skill into
real life situations or concerns.
Assessment This is a task which aims to evaluate your
level of mastery in achieving the learning competency.

Additional Activities In this portion, another activity will be given to

you to enrich your knowledge or skill of the
lesson learned. This also tends retention of learned
concepts.

Answer Key This contains answers to all activities in the

module.

At the end of this module you will also find:

References This is a list of all sources used in

developing this module.

The following are some reminders in using this module:

1. Use the module with care. Do not put unnecessary mark/s on any part of the
module. Use a separate sheet of paper in answering the exercises.
 2. Don’t forget to answer What I Know before moving on to the other activities
included in the module.
3. Read the instruction carefully before doing each task.
4. Observe honesty and integrity in doing the tasks and checking your answers.
5. Finish the task at hand before proceeding to the next.
6. Return this module to your teacher/facilitator once you are through with it.
If you encounter any difficulty in answering the tasks in this module, do not
hesitate to consult your teacher or facilitator. Always bear in mind that you are
not alone.

We hope that through this material, you will experience meaningful learning and
gain deep understanding of the relevant competencies. You can do it!

What I Need to Know

From time immemorial, the beauty and the grandeur of nature have never
failed to fascinate the imaginations of the creative minds. The colourful landscapes,
changing seasons, twinkling stars, vast sky, majestic oceans, exotic life forms, great
mountains, and deep valleys -have all been the source of veneration for the
primitive human being. The roots of modern science lie in man’s eternal quest to
comprehend these phenomena by careful and systematic observations that
gradually led to many discoveries of nature and its laws. The new scientific ideas
and inventions have profoundly changed the way we view our world today.

How trench and other earth’s feature were created? What is the nature of the
force or mechanism that moves massive continents thousands of miles across? What
causes violent earthquakes to displace huge landmasses abruptly? How could great
mountain ranges rise to such incredible heights? What makes earth's interior so
restless? Answers to some of these questions may lie in understanding the Earth's
interior itself. Good luck and I hope you will learn a lot from this module and
eventually pursue science courses in the future.

The module covers :

 Lesson 1 – Deformation of Crust

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Explain how seafloor spreads
2. Describe the structure and evolution of ocean basins

Lesso Deformation of Crust

n
 1

What’s In
Discoveries lead to more discoveries. Inventions and sophisticated
technologies haved paved pay to countless discoveries about the Earth. Until 1970
the Philippine Trench was regarded as the deepest point of the earth. In the
meantime deeper trenches have been discovered.

The Philippines Trench stretches with a length of approximately 1,320 km and

a width of round about 30 km from the northeast top of Luzon up to the Indonesian
Island of Malacca Halmahera. 10,540 meters depth were measured in its deepest
point - the Galathea Depth -. The Mount Everest with its 8,846 meters of height
would vanish smoothly in the deep sea trench. For comparison - the Pacific Ocean
reaches otherwise only an average-depth of round about 4,190 meters.

Figure 1. Philippine Trench

https://www.britannica.com/place/Philippine-Trench

What is It
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
Continental drift refers to the large-scale horizontal movements of continents
relative to one another and to the ocean basins during one or more episodes of
geologic time. This concept was an important precursor to the development of the
theory of plate tectonics, which incorporates it. The thought that continents might
have drifted was first speculated by Abraham Ortelius in 1596.The concept was fully
developed by Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), a German meteorologist.
The continental drift theory is states that once; all the continents were joined in a
super-continent, which scientists call Pangaea, meaning “All-earth.” Pangaea started
to break up into two smaller supercontinents, called Laurasia and Gondwanaland,
during the Jurassic period. By the end of the Cretaceous period, the continents were
separating into land masses that look like our modern-day continents. Panthalassa is
the ocean that surrounds the supercontinent.

Wegener’s Evidence
1. Fossil Correlation. The fossils of Mesosaurus, a freshwater reptile which is
only found in South America and Africa is present around the shores of different
continents. Fossils of the land reptile Lystrosaurus from rocks of the same age are
found in South America Africa, and Antarctica. It was impossible for his reptile to
swim the long distance from one continent to another and being a freshwater
animal. Fossils are traces and remains of organisms that lived in prehistoric times.
Fossil of the plant fern Glossopteris was also found in India, South Africa, Australia,
Antarctica and South America.
2. Topographic evidence. If the maps of North and South America were
moved eastward against Europe and Africa, the continental shapes would match.
Continents seemed to fit together, not as continuously changing shoreline but at the
edges of their continental shelves.
3. Rock Formation. Existing mountain ranges separated by vast oceans
contain rocks of identical mineral content. Appalachians Mountains on the Eastern
US and Caledonian Mountain (Scotland) fit together, as well as Karroo strata in
South Africa and Santa Caterina rocks in Brazil. Wegener concluded that they were
once a single mountain range that got separated as the continents drifted.
4. Paleoclimatic Evidence. Evidence of glaciers is present in regions with
warm, dry climate. There is an evidence of glacial till deposits in the northern and
southern latitudes. There are scratches on rocks left by glaciers. Tillites are found in
Africa, South America, India, and Australia. Coral reefs and swamps that lead to the
formation of coal deposits are found in tropical environments. Wegener discovered
ancient coal seams and coral reefs in parts of the continents that are much too cold
today.

Despite all these incredible evidences for continental drift, Wegener was
not able to see his theory gain acceptance. He concentrated on developing
evidences that continents drifted not on what caused them to move. He died in 1930
at the age of 50 from a probable heart failure while on a scientific expedition in
Greenland.

SEAFLOOR SPREADING
In the 1960’s Harry Hess theorized that the seafloor is a hundred million
years younger than the continents. He suggested that not only the continents
moving but also the seafloor. During World War II, Harry became interested in
mapping the ocean floor using SONAR, a device that bounces sound waves off
underwater objects and then records the echoes of this sound waves. The time it
takes for the echo to arrive indicates the distance of the object
Findings of Hess
1. Long mountain ranges existed throughout the ocean floor called Mid
Oceanic Ridges.
2. The longest one runs through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean called Mid
Atlantic Ridges.
3. A rift is an elongated break that or opening in the middle of the mid oceanic
ridge. This is where emission of volcanic materials occurs.
He devised a theory which states that at mid oceanic ridges, molten
material rises from the mantle and erupts. It then spreads out, pushing older rock to
both sides of the ridges. When it reaches the surface it cools and solidifies becoming
the seafloor.
As more magma rises, the present floor is pushed aside. At plate boundaries,
the cold and denser rock sinks and melts, becoming magma once again. This shows
that there is “recycling process” that takes place. Subduction is the process by
which the ocean floor sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle.
It allows part of the ocean floor to sink back into the mantle. New ocean floor forms
along the cracks in the ocean crust as molten material erupts from the mantle
spreading out and pushing older rocks to the sides of the crack. New ocean floor is
continually added by the process of seafloor spreading.
 https://image.slidesharecdn.com/earthsciencechapter4-2-101217094518-phpapp01/95/earth-science-42-restless-continents-6-728.jpg?cb=1292579176

The Earth is a giant magnet. When hot magma rises on the Earth’s surface.
Cools and hardens, the minerals especially the iron magnetite in magma are
magnetized in alignment with the Earth’s magnetic field. Rocks that were formed in
different places on Earth have different magnetizations. It was suggested that the
Earth’s magnetic poles must have flipped or wandered. This is called magnetic
reversal. Normal magnetic Polarity occurs when the magnetic orientation is the same
as that of the Earth’s current field. On the other hand, reversed magnetic polarity
happens when magnetic orientations in the rock are opposite to the current
orientation of Earth’s magnetic field.
In 1965, J. Tuzo Wilson combined the continental drift and seafloor spreading
and made two major contributions to strengthen the theory of plate tectonics.—the
introduction of hotspots and the transform plate boundary.

THE STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF OCEAN BASINS

Crustal plates move gradually and converge at their boundaries. These
boundaries are common areas of tectonic activity which causes the deformation of
Earth’s crust. Tectonic activities includes earthquakes, volcanism, and mountain
formation. All of this results in the creation of many ocean basins features.
Much of the general information concerning the depth of the ocean basins
as made after WWI. Many topographic features that exist on the ocean basin are
obtained by using the following technologies: echo sounder which primarily
developed for military purposes, side scan sonar and satellites that measure the
height of the sea surfaces. SONAR is an instrument that accurately determines the
time between the emission of acoustic pulse and the detection of its echo. Using the
principle of sound reflection, scientists can determine the depth of the ocean.
Continental Margin
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_margin

The continental margin is the shallow water area found in proximity to

continent. The continental margin consists of three different features: the
continental rise, the continental slope, and the continental shelf. Continental
margins constitute about 28% of the oceanic area. The continental shelf is the
portion of the continental margin that transitions from the shore out towards to
ocean. They are believed to make up 7 percent of the sea floor. Continental slope is
the submerged border of a continent that slopes gradually to the ocean bottom. The
continental rise is an underwater feature found between the continental slope and
the abyssal plain. This feature can be found all around the world, and it represents
the final stage in the boundary between continents and the deepest part of the
ocean.
Topographic Features Associated with Ocean Basin

https://quizlet.com/268356607/science-oceans-and-landforms-diagram/

Plates can spread apart by moving away from each other. This creates gaps
where hot molten rock, called magma from Earth’s mantle wells up. When magma
seeps through the gaps, it solidifies as it cools, creating a new layer of ocean crust.
This creates structure such as oceanic ridge, which are continuous mountain chains
located under the surface of the sea. The mid-oceanic ridge constitutes 23% of
Earth’s surface. In the center of the mid-oceanic ridges is a rift valley beteen 30-50
km wide, dissects 1000-3000 m deep into the ridge system. When volcanoes in the
ocean floor erupt, they can create mountains so high that their peaks breaks the
surface of the ocean. As the lava cools and hardens, an island forms. It is now called
as the volcanic island. A seamount is a large submerged volcanic mountain rising
from the ocean floor that did not break the surface of the ocean.
An abyssal plain is another raised feature found within ocean basins. It is
defined as small elevated landforms that rises from the great depths of the ocean.
Ocean trenches are long narrow, steep sided depressions found on the ocean floor
that contain the greatest depths of the ocean. Generally, the trenches mark the
transition between continents and ocean basins.

What’s More
Activity 2. Seafloor Spreading Model
Perform the experiment below and try to answer the guide questions.

Materials
scissors 2 sheets of unlined paper metric ruler colored
marker

Procedure

1. Draw a stripes across one sheet of paper, parallel to the short sides of the
paper. The stripes should vary in spacing and thickness.

2. Fold the paper in half lengthwise and write the word “Start” at the top of both
halves of the paper. Using the scissors, carefully cut the paper in half along the fold
line to form two strips.

3. Lightly fold the second sheet of paper into eights. Then unfold it, leaving
creases in the paper. Fold this sheet in half lengthwise.
4. Starting at the fold, draw a lines 5.5 cm long on the middle crease and two
crease closest to the ends of paper.

5. Now carefully cut along the lines you drew. Unfold the paper. There should be
three slits in the center of the paper.

6. Put the two striped strip of papers together so their Start label touch one
another. Insert the Start ends of the strips up through the center slit, and then pull
them toward the side slits.
7. Insert the end strips into the side slits. Pull the ends of the strips, and watch
what happens at the center slit.

8. Practice pulling the strips through the slits until you can make the two strips
come up and go down at the same time.
Guide Questions
1. What feature of the ocean floor does the center slit stand for? What prominent
feature of the ocean floor is missing from the model at this point?
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2. What do side slits stand for? What does the space under the paper stand for?
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3. How does the ocean floor as shown by the part of the strip close to the center slit
differ from the ocean floor as shown by the part near a side slit? How does this
difference affect the depth of the ocean?
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4. What do the stripes on the strips stand for? Why is it important that your model
have an identical pattern of stripes on both sides of the center slit?
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5. Explain seafloor spreading. What part of the process were not shown by the
model?
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