Plate Tectonics

Plate Tectonics
Theory that proposes that the Earths outer shell is made up of individual plates which move and interact and thereby produce earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains and the crust itself.

Plate Tectonics
Plate one of numerous rigid sections of the lithosphere that moves as a unit over the material of the asthenosphere

Plate Tectonics
Major plates
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. North American plate South American plate African plate Pacific plate Eurasian plate Australian plate Antarctic plate

1 4 2 7

5 3

Plate Tectonics
Intermediate-sized plates
Carribean plate Nazca plate Philippine plate Arabian plate Cocos plate Nova Scotia plate

Plate Tectonics

+ A dozen more
plates that are smaller

Plate Tectonics
Tectonics - refers to the deformation of Earths crust and results in the formation of structural features (e.g. mountains, folds, faults)

Plate Tectonics
Plate + Tectonics A revolutionary theory that can link nearly all processes that shape the Earth in a single model (mountain building, volcanism, earthquakes, formation of oceans, formation of islands, etc.)

Plate Tectonics Continental Drift

A product of the merging of two earlier theories
Continental drift theory Sea-floor spreading theory All continents once existed as a supercontinent. Pangea 200 m.y.ago there was a break-up of pangea

Sea-Floor Spreading
First proposed by Harry Hess of Princeton Univ. Proved by Fred Vine and Drummond H. Mathews of Cambridge Univ. New oceanic crust is produced along midoceanic ridges and are sites of spreading

Continental Drift
Proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1915

Continental Drift - evidence

Fit of continents Map fit of contintents generated at 100 meters beneath the sea Overlaps and margins due to erosion and deposition

Continental Drift - evidence

Fossils
Mesosaurus Snaggle-toothed reptile

Continental Drift
Rafting Isthmian links

Continental Drift - evidence

Rock type Rock type of comparable age and composition Appalachians terminate off the coast of Newfoundland and continue in the British Isles and Scandinavia

Island stepping stones

Continental drift

Continental Drift - evidence

Paleoclimate Ice-sheets receded and left behind traces in rocks of its existence These traces are found in 220 m.y. old rocks now in the equator During the same period tropical climates were present

Continental Drift - evidence

Paleoclimate 220 m.y. ago ice sheets covered extensive areas of the southern hemisphere

Continental Drift Continental Drift

Theory of Alfred Wegener was rejected Utter Damned Rot Why? Lack of a mechanism that was capable of moving continents Continents cant plough into rocks comprising the ocean floor

Continental crust Oceanic crust

Continental Drift
In order for a scientific viewpoint to gain wide acceptance, evidence and proof must come from all fields of science !!!