EVIDENCES OF

PLATE
MOVEMENTS
 Evidences for Plate

Movements
to enumerate the lines of evidence that
support the plate movement (S9ES –Ia-j-
36.6).
investigatethe pieces of evidence of
the Continental Drift Theory;
demonstrate the evolution of the
oceanic crust through Sea Floor
Spreading; and
realize the importance of the
seafloor spreading process relative
to the Continental Drift Theory.
Evidence of Plate
Movements
 Continental Drift Theory
 Seafloor Spreading Theory
 Magnetic Reversal
Continental Drift Theory:
Past and Future Locations
of the World’s Continents
 Historical
evidence for
the continental
drift theory
 Modern
Evidence for
movement of
tectonic plates
 German polar
researcher,
geophysicist, and
meteorologist.
once a
He is large
remembered as landmass
the originator of called
the Continental
Drift Theory by
Pangaea, a
hypothesizing in Alfred Lothar Wegener
Greek
1912 that the word
continents are which
slowly drifting means "All
around the Earth Earth."
Continental Drift Theory

eastern border of South America and the Western

part of Africa seem to fit together like a big jigsaw
puzzle
Evolution of Pangaea
pubs.usgs.gov
Evidences for Continental
Drift
 Fossils
 Rock samples
 Climate
Fossil Evidences
 Rock Samples
 Geological "fit" evidence
is the matching of
large-scale geological
features on different
 Illustration showing
similar rock
assemblages across
different continents. It
has been noted that the
coastlines of South
America and West Africa
seem to match up,
however more
particularly, the rock
terrains of separate
continents confirm as
well.
The Scottish Highlands and the Appalachians
are the same mountain range, once connected
as the Central Pangean Mountains.
 Climate

 the existence of coal

deposits in Antarctica
suggested that it was once
located near the region of
the Earth where the climate
is enough to support
complex life forms such as
plants and tall trees.
 the figure, notice the
direction of the movement of
the continents indicated by
the arrows during Pangaea
time.
 CLIMATIC EVIDENCE

Glaciers in areas that are now close to the equator

 Activity 1
A Journey From The Past To
the Future!
Summary…….
 AlfredLothar Wegener's curiosity drives
him to look for evidence that supports his
Continental Drift Theory that continents
were once connected as a big landmass
called "Pangaea."
 TheContinental Drift Theory is being
supported by the following evidence:
continental fit, matching of rocks, fossils
of ancient organisms, coal deposits in
Antarctica, ancient climates, and glaciers
carvings.
Rejected? Why?

 Wegener was not a geophysicist,

 heestimated the speed of continental
motion, 250 cm/year, was unbelievably
high, and
 hecannot explain what causes the
continents to move.
Never Give Up…..

 AlfredWegener didn't give up and

continued his expedition to search for
more evidence but later on died.
 Ittook many years before his Theory
of Continental Drift was accepted.
Seafloor Spreading
Evidences of Seafloor
Spreading
Active fractures in the ocean
floor
Age of seafloor rock
Thickness of sediments
deposited
Patterns of seafloor magnetism
 Seafloor Spreading
 The idea of continental
drift circulated in
scientific circles until
World War II, when
sounding gear called
SONAR produced new
evidence of what the
seafloor looked like.
The gear, developed in
the 1930s, bounced SONAR beam to navigate and
map out the seafloor
sound waves off the
seafloor to determine
its depth and features.
 He wanted to
continue his scientific
investigations even
while at war. So, he
left his ship's
sounding gear all the
time, not just when
approaching port or
navigating a difficult
landing. What Hess
discovered was a big
surprise.
Harry Hammond Hess, a geologist
from Princeton University.
Seafloor spreading or Seafloor spread is a process that occurs
at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and
then gradually moves away from the ridge.
Ocean floor
exploration
continued, and
by the 1950s,
other
researchers had
found that a
huge rift ran
along the top of
the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge.
He discovered that the bottom of the sea
was not as smooth as expected, but full of
canyons, trenches, and volcanic sea
 In the early
1960s,dating of ocean-
core samples showed that
the ocean floor was
younger at the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge but
progressively older in
either direction,
confirming the reality of
seafloor spreading.

Harry Hess observed that the rate of formation of

new seafloor at the mid-ocean ridge is not always
as fast as the destruction of the old seafloor at the
subduction zone. This explains why the Pacific
Ocean is getting smaller and why the Atlantic Ocean
is getting wider.
If the subduction zone is
faster than the seafloor
spreading, the ocean
shrinks. He published
his theory in History of
Ocean Basins (1962), In the early 1960s,
and it came to be called dating of ocean-core
"seafloor spreading." samples showed that
the ocean floor was
younger at the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge but
progressively older in
either direction,
confirming the reality of
seafloor spreading.
 Bathymetry is the study of the
"beds" or "floors" of water bodies,
including the ocean, rivers,
streams, and lakes.
 Activity 2
Where It All Begins?
Magnetic Reversal

 Further evidence came along by 1963, as

geophysicists realized that Earth's
magnetic field had reversed polarity
many times, with each reversal lasting
less than 200,000 years.
 Rocks of the same age in the seafloor
crust would have taken on the magnetic
polarity at the time that part of the crust
formed.
magnetic stripes formed during seafloor spreading
Magnetic Reversal

A magnetic compass can tell direction.

 Theneedle of a magnetic compass
usually points to the North Pole of the
Earth, which is actually the South
Magnetic Pole at present.
 Thecrystallized irons in rocks found in
the seafloor act as a magnetic
compass that can tell the Earth's
magnetic field direction.
Magnetic Reversal
 surveys of either side of the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge showed a symmetrical pattern of
alternating polarity stripes.
Seafloor spreading and magnetic striping
Rising magma assumes the polarity of Earth's
geomagnetic field before it solidifies into oceanic
crust. At spreading centers, this crust is separated into
parallel bands of rock by successive waves of
emergent magma. When Earth's geomagnetic field
undergoes a reversal, the change in polarity is
recorded in the magma, which contributes to the
 Magnetic reversal happened many times in the past.
The occurrence of the magnetic reversal can be
explained through the magnetic patterns in the magnetic
rocks. These magnetic patterns allow our scientists to
understand the ages and rate of movement of the
materials from the mid-oceanic ridge.
Why is there a magnetic
reversal?
 The magnetic reversal, also called the
"magnetic flip" of the Earth, happens
when the North Pole is transformed
into the South Pole, and the South Pole
becomes the North Pole.
 This event happens because of the
changing direction of the flow of
materials in the Earth's liquid outer
core.
 Over the last 10 million years, there had
been an average of 4 to 5 reversals per
million years.
 New rocks are added to the ocean floor at
the ridge with approximately equal
amounts on both sides of the oceanic
ridge.
 Activity 3
The enigmatic Magnetic Reversal
Age of Earth's oceanic crust
The age of Earth's oceanic crust can be presented to show the
pattern of seafloor spreading at the global scale.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
 Bythe 1970s, geologists had agreed to use
the term "plate tectonics“ for what had
become the core paradigm of their
discipline.
 They used the term "plates" because they
had found evidence that not just continents
move, but so do whole plates of the Earth's
crust.
A plate might include a continent, parts of a
continent, and or undersea portions of the
crust.
 AlfredWegener's idea of continental drift
had been developed and refined together
with the Seafloor Spreading of Harry Hess.
Seafloor spreading in three ocean
basins
Patterns of seafloor spreading in the Pacific (left),
Arctic (center), and Atlantic (right) oceans showing
the relative age of oceanic crust. The youngest
regions are colored red, whereas the oldest regions
are colored blue.
Performance Task