TYPES OF EARTHQUAKE WAVES

Earthquake shaking and damage is the result of three basic types of elastic waves.
Two of the three propagate within a body of rock. The faster of these body waves is
called the primary or P wave. Its motion is the same as that of a sound wave in that, as
it spreads out, it alternately pushes (compresses) and pulls (dilates) the rock. These P
waves are able to travel through both solid rock, such as granite mountains, and liquid
material, such as volcanic magma or the water of the oceans.

The slower wave through the body of rock is called the secondary or S wave. As an S
wave propagates, it shears the rock sideways at right angles to the direction of travel.
If a liquid is sheared sideways or twisted, it will not spring back, hence S waves
cannot propagate in the liquid parts of the earth, such as oceans and lakes.

The actual speed of P and S seismic waves depends on the density and elastic
properties of the rocks and soil through which they pass. In most earthquakes, the P
waves are felt first. The effect is similar to a sonic boom that bumps and rattles
windows. Some seconds later, the S waves arrive with their up-and-down and side-toside motion, shaking the ground surface vertically and horizontally. This is the wave
motion that is so damaging to structures.

The third general type of earthquake wave is called a surface wave, reason being is
that its motion is restricted to near the ground surface. Such waves correspond to
ripples of water that travel across a lake.
Surface waves in earthquakes can be divided into two types. The first is called a Love
wave. Its motion is essentially that of S waves that have no vertical displacement; it
moves the ground from side to side in a horizontal plane but at right angles to the
direction of propagation. The horizontal shaking of Love waves is particuly damaging
to the foundations of structures.

The second type of surface wave is known as a Rayleigh wave. Like rolling ocean
waves, Rayleigh waves wave move both vertically and horizontally in a vertical plane
pointed in the direction in which the waves are travelling.

Surface waves travel more slowly than body waves (P and S); and of the two surface
waves, Love waves generally travel faster than Rayleigh waves. Love waves (do not
propagate through water) can effect surface water only insofar as the sides of lakes
and ocean bays pushing water sideways like the sides of a vibrating tank, whereas
Rayleigh waves, becasuse of their vertical component of their motion can affect the
bodies of water such as lakes.

P and S waves have a characteristic which effects shaking: when they move through
layers of rock in the crust, they are reflected or refracted at the interfaces between
rock types. Whenever either wave is refracted or reflected, some of the energy of one
type is converted to waves of the other type. A common example; a P wave travels
upwards and strikes the bottom of a layer of alluvium, part of its energy will pass
upward through the alluvium as a P wave and part will pass upward as the converted
S-wave motion. Noting also that part of the energy will also be reflected back
downward as P and S waves.

Plate Tectonic - Earthquakes (5)

Pre Lab

OBJECTIVES:
Students learn about P and S waves.

Analyzing the
type of waves
produced by
earthquakes.

Comparing S
and P waves
recorded on a
seismogram.

VOCABULARY:

earthquake
"event"

lithosphere

primary wave

secondary wave

seismic waves

seismogram

Ground rupture caused by an earthquake

MATERIALS:
slinky
BACKGROUND:
rope
Earthquakes and volcanoes are evidence for plate tectonics. Earthquakes are
caused when energy is released as the lithosphere (crust and upper mantle) of the
Earth moves. Energy is emitted in the form of waves. There are different types of
waves, some move faster, slower, sideways, or up and down. A seismograph
records these waves on a seismogram. When an
earthquake is recorded it is called an earthquake
"event."
There are two types of waves you will discuss with
the students, P and S waves. P waves or primary
waves, are the first waves that the seismogram
records. The P wave is the "fast" wave and can be
called a push-pull wave, because it moves by
contracting and expanding along a horizontal path. A
P-wave travels through a material as a
compressional force. For example, when you speak,
your voice compresses a volume of air. One of the properties of air (and just about
any other material) is that it resists being compressed into a smaller volume. When
your voice compresses the air, it resists by pushing against neighboring volumes of
air. These volumes then resist compression, and they push back against their
neighbors. This generates a wave of compression that travels through all the
volumes of air between your mouth and the person hearing you.
The second major type of seismic wave is called an S-wave. S-waves are shear
waves. S-waves are slower than P-waves. The particle motion in shear waves is
perpendicular to the direction of the wave.
PROCEDURE:
1. Review the divisions of inside the
Earth. Earthquakes occur in the
upper part of the crust and
mantle. Earthquakes release
energy in the form of waves.
2. Demonstrate P- and S-wave
motion to the class. P-waves can

be demonstrated with a slinky. Pull the slinky apart and then pull in
about 6 coils. Let them go. The wave will oscillate through the slinky,
alternately compressing and expanding the coils.
3. The S wave can be shown by using a rope attached to a wall. Hold
onto the rope and move your wrist up and down. This whipping
motion will generate S-waves. The motion will be up and down as the
energy goes through the rope. Although you can demonstrate both
types of wave with a slinky, we have found that students can
distinguish the two types of waves more readily if you use different
materials. If you cannot attach a rope to your classroom walls, try this
demonstration with two people.
4. Draw a P and S wave on the board as illustrated below. Make sure
the students understand how to identify them. In addition, explain that
the greater the height of the lines on the seismogram, the larger the
earthquake. This holds true unless a seismograph is located very
close to the epicenter of the earthquake. This causes the wave height
to be exaggerated.

[Dictionary]
[Back to Plate Tectonic Grid] [Back to Earthquakes (5)]

Each cell, under a specific grade level contains 3 lesson plans and student
worksheets per week. Multimedia activities, web links, and dictionaries can also be
found. Lesson plans increase in difficulty through the grades. Each grade level
builds knowledge in a logical sequence. When printing directly from the Internet
Explorer, the pages have to be set up before printing. Click here for instructions.
Printable version and workbooks can be downloaded by clicking here. Printable
version of the below Scope and Sequence click here.

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Overview and Acknowledgments

To purchase Curriculum Materials, go to the Catalog
Return to Elementary
Plate Tectonics Cycle at a Glance
In the Plate Tectonic Cycle, students learn about the Earth's dynamics
as it spins on its axis, revolving around the Sun. The Earth is restless
inside, as it tries to cool its interior. Material inside the Earth become
viscous and flow in certain areas. Movement within the Earth's interior
is reflected on the outside crust. Convection currents inside the

mantle (area between the crust and the outer core) create 2 types of
crustal movements. When convections currents come together,
convergent plate boundaries (earthquakes) are formed on the Earth's
crust. When the convection currents pull the crust apart in two
different directions divergent plate boundaries (volcanoes and
earthquakes) are formed. A consequence of the Earth's surface
moving faster along the equator than at the poles creates tension
which in part forms transform boundaries.
In the Classroom
Hands-on activities teach students how scientists investigate the
Earth through earthquakes and volcanoes. They learn to challenge
and think about different theories. Learning about how to cope with
the disasters caused by plate tectonics is also emphasized.

LABORATORY 8

Earthquakes
MAIN IDEAS

Several types of faults occur in the crust.

The faults break due to accumulated stress along the fault. The sudden release
of energy is called an earthquake.

The energy is released as seismic waves that travel away from the earthquake
location. Two major types of waves are produced: body waves and surface
waves.

The waves can be measured by an instrument named a seismometer. The timing

and amplitude of the seismic waves can be used to determine the location and
magnitude of the earthquake.

 Earthquakes commonly occur along plate boundaries.

These waves also provide information on the structure of the earth. A clear
layering is recognized.

INTRODUCTION
In this lab we will study the three types of faults that can form. Next, we will look
at how and earthquake forms along a fault. Then we will see how a seismometer
records an earthquake and how the location and magnitude are determined. Finally we
will look at the relationship between earthquakes and plate tectonics.

FAULTS
A fault is a fracture or zone of fractures slong which there has been displacement
of the rock on either side of the fracture. Faulting is a basic mechanism by which
rocks deform. Faults are generally planar and are classified according to the nature of
the movements as observed perpendicular to the plane of the fault. Four common
types of faults are shown below. Tensional forces cause normal faulting, whereas
compressional forces cause reverse and thrust faulting. Notice how the relative
movements along the faults differ and are caused from the different forces.

Click for animation

SEISMOLOGY
Seismology is the study of earthquakes. The principal tool to measure earthquakes is a
seismometer which measures the arrival of earthquake waves. Sudden displacement along a
fault (earthquake) will generate different types of waves that travel through the earth and along
its surface. These waves are defined by the type of motion of a particle in the path of the wave.
The study of seismic waves is an effective means of interpreting the nature of the earth's
interior. The velocity of P and S waves generally increases with depth in the earth which causes
the waves to bend. The waves also reflect and refract off abrupt discontinuities such as the
crust/mantle boundary (Moho). Fluid layers in the earth block S waves and create "shadow
zones".
TYPES OF SEISMIC WAVES
Waves in air, water, and rock transfer energy long distances without moving the constituent
particles of these substances very far. For example, an ocean wave can travel across an ocean
but each individual water molecule only moves a few meters back and forth. Similarly, a sound
wave in air can go tens and hundreds of kilometers but the air molecules themselves only shift a
fraction of a millimeter. Equivalent types of waves occur in solid rock as well.

Click for animation (motion not exactly to scale)

P waves (or "longitudinal waves") travel through fluids, and solids. They are compression
waves and rely on the compressional strength and elasticity of the materials to propagate. They
are known as body waves because they travel though the body of a material in all directions and
not just at the surface, as water waves do. For P waves, the motion of the meterial particles that
transmit the energy move parallel to the direction of propagation. P waves travel the same way
as sound waves in air. The transmission of compressional waves is due to the strong electronic
between atoms that get squeezed together too tightly. P waves are the fastest seismic waves ^M
and travel at roughly 6.0 km/s in the crust (more than seven times the speed of sound).

Click for animation (motion not exactly to scale)

S waves depends on the shear strength of the material. Imagine a very long and narrow
block of Jello, and then imagine shaking the end of it and then imagine shaking the end of it from
side to side. A shear wave will propagate down the long length of it. You shake it from side to
side but the wave travels forward and perpendicular to the direction of shaking. You can try this
with a long spring or a Slinky suspended from strings also. If you give it a sudden sideways
deflection and a transverse or shear wave will travel both lengths of the spring. Now try to
imagine doing the same thing with water in a tank. No shear wave will propagate because gases
and fluids have no shear strength. They give too easily. However, the strength of atomic bonds
in solids allows them to transmit tranverse motions. S waves do not travel as fast as P waves and
have a velocity of about 3.5 km/s in the crust.

Click for animation (motion not exactly to scale)

Surface waves are very similar to ocean waves as they only occur at the surface of the earth
and do not penetrate into the interior deeply. There are two types of surface waves: Love waves
and Rayleigh waves. Typically, it the surface waves that do the most damage during an
earthquake, especially at distances far from the epicenter. Most of the damage in the 1985
Mexico City earthquake was from surface waves that had traveled over 200 kilometers from the
epicenter located near the west coast of Mexico. The velocity of surface waves varies with their
wavelength but always travel slower than P and S waves.

An earthquake will generate all of these types of waves and they will propagate over the
surface of the earth and through the body of the earth. The waves can be distinguished by the
differing velocities and particle motions. Seismometers measure the particle motion produced by
these waves.

Click for animation (motion not exactly to scale)

Table 1. Main types of seismic waves.

wave type
body waves
surface waves

particle motion
longitudinal
transverse
horizontal transverse
vertical elliptical

name
P wave
S wave
Love wave
Rayleigh wave

LOCATING EARTHQUAKES WITH SEISMIC WAVES

As we have seen above, earthquakes produce all three types of seismic waves: P waves, S
waves, and surface waves. Because the different waves travel at different velocities, the time it
takes each wave to arrive depends on the distance to the earthquake. (just like thunder and
lightning; the farther away the lightning is, the longer it takes the thunder to arrive). If we have
a recording of the seismic waves made by a seismometer, we can measure the time between the P
and S waves. From that time we can calculate the distance to the earthquake.

Above we see two maps showing the location of a small (magnitude 3.8) earthquake that
occurred along the San Jacinto fault northeast of San Diego in 1997. The yellow triangles mark
the location of some of the seismic stations that recorded the earthquake. Active faults are
marked by red lines. The red dot marks the official earthquake location as calculated by the
United States Geological Survey. Below we see the seismograms recorded at different stations
for a this earthquake. The seismograms are the yellow sqiggles and show the vertical movement
of the earth as measured by a seismometer located at the stations TRO, LVA2, FRD, and RDM.
The horizontal axis is time and is marked in hours, minutes, and seconds (1997207 refers to day
207 of 1997). The vertical lines are 5 seconds apart. At TRO, the nearest station, the P wave
arrived at just before 3:15. At station LVA2, which is slightly farther from the earthquake than
TRO, the P wave arrived a little later, at almost exactly 3:15. The last station to record the
earthquake was RDM, which recorded the P wave at 3:15:05. Notice that the gap between the P
and S increases with the distance to the earthquake also.

We can measure the time separation between the S and P times to determine the location of
the earthquake. (in the case, we already know where the earthquake is, but we can test the
method). Below is a table showing the P and S times as measured from the seismograms above.
From the P and S times we can calculate the S minus P time (in seconds). By multiplying the S
minus P time by a factor of 8, we can get the approximate distance in km between the seismic
station and the earthquake. For example, the S minus P time at RDM is 6.2 seconds so the
distance to the earthquake is 6.2 times 8, which equals 49.6. If we draw a circle around RDM at
a distance of 49.6 km on a map, we can find all possible locations of the earthquake. If we do
this for all four stations, we can determine the location of the earthquake (epicenter). The map
below shows circles corresponding to the distances in Table 2. All four circles intersect on the
red dot. Our location has a slight error because the earthquake actually occurred at a depth of 14
km and not at the surface of the earth. Seismologists use computers to locate earthquakes but
the computer programs still use the same method.

Table 2. S and P wave arrival times and distance

station
TRO
LVA2
FRD
RDM

P time
3:14:59.2
3:14:59.9
3:15:00.7
3:15:05.0

S time
3:15:01.9
3:15:02.9
3:15:04.4
3:15:11.2

S -P time
2.7
3.0
3.0
6.2

distance (km)
21.8
24.1
29.8
49.6

MAGNITUDE AND INTENSITY

The size, or magnitude, of an earthquake depends mainly on how large the original fault break is.
For example, in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the fault rupture was about 200 miles long.
In the biggest earthquake ever recorded (in 1960 in Chile), the broken fault was over 800 miles
long. For small earthquakes, however, the size of the fault rupture might only be a few hundred
feet. Because it is not always easy to measure the size of the fault directly (it might be under the
ocean, or very deep), the size of the earthquake is estimated by the amplitude of the seismic
waves. This can be done by measuring the P and S waves or the surface waves. One way of
doing this was is called the Richter magnitude, after the person who invented it. Magnitude is
expressed as number scaled to the size of the earthquake. The intensity of an earthquake
measures the amount of shaking that is produced. This depends both on the distance to an
earthquake and the magnitude of the earthquake. A nearby small earthquake can produce the
same amount of shaking as a more distant large earthquake. The amount of movement also
depends on the local geology. Soft sediment and sand tends to amplify seismic waves and create
more shaking (and consequently damage). Intensity is measured on the Mercalli intensity scale,
which goes from 1 to 12.

EARTHQUAKES AND PLATE TECTONICS

Most earthquakes occur along plate boundaries, as the constant movement of the plates
causes faults to slip. The map above shows all earthquakes above magnitude 4 recorded in the
world for the year 1996. The plate boundaries are shown as thin black lines. Below is a map of
Southern California with all earthquakes that occurred between 1996 and 1997. The plate
boundary between the North American plate and Pacific plate lies along the San Andreas fault
but we can see that considerable earthquake activity occurs along the San Jacinto and Elsinore
faults as well. Earthquakes provide a good way to locate plate boundaries.

LAB EXERCISES
Earthquake Location

Earthquake Magnitude
HALLWAY DISPLAY

In the hallway of the Chemistry-Geology building are three seismographs

showing the seismic signals are three seismic stations in the San Diego area (Palomar
mountain, Barrett Dam, and Glamis). These recorders show only the vertical
component of the seismic wave that travels past it. The PC map display shows the
location of earthquakes that have occurred in Southern California in the past few days.

What Causes An Earthquake ?

An Earthquake is a sudden tremor or movement of the earth's crust, which
originates naturally at or below the surface. The word natural is important
here, since it excludes shock waves caused by French nuclear tests, man
made explosions and landslides caused by building work.
There are two main causes of earthquakes.
Firstly, they can be linked to explosive volcanic eruptions; they are in fact very
common in areas of volcanic activity where they either proceed or accompany
eruptions.
Secondly, they can be triggered by Tectonic activity associated with plate
margins and faults. The majority of earthquakes world wide are of this type.
Terminology

An earthquake can be likened to the effect observed when a stone is thrown

into water. After the stone hits the water a series of concentric waves will
move outwards from the center. The same events occur in an earthquake.
There is a sudden movement within the crust or mantle, and concentric shock
waves move out from that point. Geologists and Geographers call the origin of
the earthquake the focus. Since this is often deep below the surface and
difficult to map, the location of the earthquake is often referred to as the point
on the Earth surface directly above the focus. This point is called
the epicentre.
The strength, or magnitude, of the shockwaves determines the extent of the
damage caused. Two main scales exist for defining the strength, the Mercalli
Scale and the Richter Scale.
Earthquakes are three dimensional events, the waves move outwards from
the focus, but can travel in both the horizontal and vertical plains. This
produces three different types of waves which have their own distinct
characteristics and can only move through certain layers within the Earth. Lets
take a look at these three forms of shock waves.
Types of shockwaves
P-Waves
Primary Waves (P-Waves) are identical in character to sound waves. They are
high frequency, short-wavelength, longitudinal waves which can pass through
both solids and liquids. The ground is forced to move forwards and backwards
as it is compressed and decompressed. This produces relatively small
displacements of the ground.
P Waves can be reflected and refracted, and under certain circumstances can
change into S-Waves.

Particles are compressed and expanded in the wave's direction.

S-Waves
Secondary Waves (S-Waves) travel more slowly than P-Waves and arrive at
any given point after the P-Waves. Like P-Waves they are high frequency,

short-wavelength waves, but instead of being longitudinal they are transverse.

They move in all directions away from their source, at speeds which depend
upon the density of the rocks through which they are moving. They cannot
move through liquids. On the surface of the Earth, S-Waves are responsible
for the sideways displacement of walls and fences, leaving them 'S' shaped.

S-waves move particles at 90 to the wave's direction.

L-Waves
Surface Waves (L-Waves) are low frequency transverse vibrations with a long
wavelength. They are created close to the epicentre and can only travel
through the outer part of the crust. They are responsible for the majority of the
building damage caused by earthquakes. This is because L Waves have a
motion similar to that of waves in the sea. The ground is made to move in a
circular motion, causing it to rise and fall as visible waves move across the
ground. Together with secondary effects such as landslides, fires and tsunami
these waves account for the loss of approximately 10,000 lives and over $100
million per year.

L-waves move particles in a circular path.

Tectonic Earthquakes
Tectonic earthquakes are triggered when the crust becomes subjected to
strain, and eventually moves. The theory of plate tectonics explains how the
crust of the Earth is made of several plates, large areas of crust which float on
the Mantle. Since these plates are free to slowly move, they can either drift
towards each other, away from each other or slide past each other. Many of

the earthquakes which we feel are located in the areas where plates collide or
try to slide past each other.
The process which explains these earthquakes, known as Elastic Rebound
Theory can be demonstrated with a green twig or branch. Holding both ends,
the twig can be slowly bent. As it is bent, energy is built up within it. A point will
be reached where the twig suddenly snaps. At this moment the energy within
the twig has exceeded the Elastic Limit of the twig. As it snaps the energy is
released, causing the twig to vibrate and to produce sound waves.
Perhaps the most famous example of plates sliding past each other is the San
Andreas Fault in California. Here, two plates, the Pacific Plate and the North
American Plate, are both moving in a roughly northwesterly direction, but one
is moving faster than the other. The San Francisco area is subjected to
hundreds of small earthquakes every year as the two plates grind against
each other. Occasionally, as in 1989, a much larger movement occurs,
triggering a far more violent 'quake'.
Major earthquakes are sometimes preceded by a period of changed activity.
This might take the form of more frequent minor shocks as the rocks begin to
move,called foreshocks , or a period of less frequent shocks as the two rock
masses temporarily 'stick' and become locked together. Detailed surveys in
San Francisco have shown that railway lines, fences and other longitudinal
features very slowly become deformed as the pressure builds up in the rocks,
then become noticeably offset when a movement occurs along the fault.
Following the main shock, there may be further movements,
called aftershocks, which occur as the rock masses 'settle down' in their new
positions. Such aftershocks cause problems for rescue services, bringing
down buildings already weakened by the main earthquake.
Volcanic Earthquakes
Volcanic earthquakes are far less common than Tectonic ones. They are
triggered by the explosive eruption of a volcano. Given that not all volcanoes
are prone to violent eruption, and that most are 'quiet' for the majority of the
time, it is not surprising to find that they are comparatively rare.
When a volcano explodes, it is likely that the associated earthquake effects
will be confined to an area 10 to 20 miles around its base, where as a tectonic
earthquake may be felt around the globe.

The volcanoes which are most likely to explode violently are those which
produce acidic lava. Acidic lava cools and sets very quickly upon contact with
the air. This tends to chock the volcanic vent and block the further escape of
pressure. For example, in the case of Mt Pelee, the lava solidified before it
could flow down the sides of the volcano. Instead it formed a spine of solid
rock within the volcano vent. The only way in which such a blockage can be
removed is by the build up of pressure to the point at which the blockage is
literally exploded out of the way. In reality, the weakest part of the volcano will
be the part which gives way, sometimes leading to a sideways explosion as in
the Mt St.Helens eruption.
When extraordinary levels of pressure develop, the resultant explosion can be
devastating, producing an earthquake of considerable magnitude. When
Krakatoa ( Indonesia, between Java and Sumatra ) exploded in 1883, the
explosion was heard over 5000 km away in Australia. The shockwaves
produced a series of tsunami ( large sea waves ), one of which was over 36m
high; that's the same as four, two story houses stacked on top of each other.
These swept over the coastal areas of Java and Sumatra killing over 36,000
people.
By contrast, volcanoes producing free flowing basic lava rarely cause
earthquakes. The lava flows freely out of the vent and down the sides of the
volcano, releasing pressure evenly and constantly. Since pressure doesn't
build up, violent explosions do not occur.

Alfred Lothar Wegener (November 1, 1880 November 1930) was a German polar
researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist.
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as
a pioneer of polar research, but today he is most remembered as the originator of the
theory of continental drift by hypothesizing in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting
around the Earth (Kontinentalverschiebung). His hypothesis was controversial and not
widely accepted until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such
as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for continental drift, and thereby a
substantial basis for today's model of plate tectonics.[1][2] Wegener was involved in
several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the existence of
the jet stream was accepted. Expedition participants made many meteorological
observations and achieved the first-ever overwintering on the inland Greenland ice
sheet as well as the first-ever boring of ice cores on a moving Arctic glacier.

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Wegener and Continental Drift Theory

We are taught that modern scientists are driven only by reason and
facts. It was only early scientists like Galileo who needed to fear the

reaction to their radical views. Neither of these beliefs is true. The

reaction to Alfred Wegener's Continental Drift Theory demonstrates
that new ideas threaten the establishment, regardless of the
century.
Alfred Wegener was the scientist who proposed the Continental
Drift Theory in the early twentieth century. Simply put, his
hypothesis proposed that the continents had once been joined, and
over time had drifted apart. The jigsaw fit that the continents make
with each other can be seen looking at the map of soil types below
(derived from University of Idaho). South America can be dragged
and rotated (rotating is tricky by touch) so you can try to see how
well it joins with Africa.
Wegener and his Critics

Since his ideas challenged scientists in geology, geophysics,

zoogeography and paleontology, it demonstrates the reactions of
different communities of scientists. These reactions eventually shut
down serious discussion of the concept. The geologist Barry Willis
summed it up best:
further discussion of it merely incumbers the literature and befogs
the mind of fellow students.
The students' minds would not be befogged. The world had to wait
until the 1960's for a wide discussion of the Continental Drift Theory
to be restarted.

Why the extreme reaction? Wegener did not even present

Continental Drift as a proven theory. He knew he would need more
support to convince others. His immediate goal was to have the
concept openly discussed. These modest goals did not spare him.
His work crossed disciplines. The authorities in the various
disciplines attacked him as an amateur that did not fully grasp their
own subject. More importantly however, was that even the
possibility of Continental Drift was a huge threat to the authorities in
each of the disciplines.
Radical viewpoints threaten the authorities in a discipline.
Authorities are expert in the current view of their discipline. A radical
view could even force experts to start over again. One of Alfred
Wegener's critics, the geologist R. Thomas Chamberlain, suggested
just that :
"If we are to believe in Wegener's hypothesis we must forget
everything which has been learned in the past 70 years and start all
over again."
He was right.
Continental Drift Theory:Building the Case

In spite of all the criticism, Wegener was able to keep Continental

Drift part of the discussion until his death. He knew that any
argument based simply on the jigsaw fit of the continents could
easily be explained away. To strengthen his case he drew from the
fields of geology, geography, biology and paleontology. Wegener
questioned why coal deposits, commonly associated with tropical

climates, would be found near the North Pole and why the plains of
Africa would show evidence of glaciation. Wegener also presented
examples where fossils of exactly the same prehistoric species
were distributed where you would expect them to be if there had
been Continental Drift (e.g. one species occurred in western Africa
and South America, and another in Antartica, India and central
Africa) [_1_] . The graphic below shows the striking distribution of
fossils on the different continents.

Wegener used an Alexander duToit graphic to demonstrate the

uncanny match of geology between eastern South America and
western Africa.

Continental Drift Theory:The Fatal Flaw

The picture painted of Alfred Wegener's contemporaries might not

be fair. One would expect scientists to resist ideas that challenged
their life's work. It doesn't explain all of the criticism. There were
alternatives. To explain the unusual distribution of fossils in the
Southern Hemisphere some scientists proposed there may once
have been a network of land bridges between the different
continents. To explain the existence of fossils of temperate species
being found in arctic regions, the existence of warm water currents
was proposed. Modern scientists would look at these explanations
as even less credible than those proposed by Wegener, but they did
help to preserve the steady state theory.

New theories often have rough edges. Wegener did not have an
explanation for how continental drift could have occurred. He
proposed two different mechanisms for this drift. One was based on
the centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the earth and another
a 'tidal argument' based on the tidal attraction of the sun and the
moon. These explanations could easily be proven inadequate. They
opened Wegener to ridicule because they were orders of magnitude
too weak. Wegener really did not believe that he had the
explanation for the mechanism, but that this should not stop
discussion of a hypothesis. Wegener's contemporaries disagreed. A
major conference was held by the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists in 1926 that was critical of the theory. Alfred
Wegener died a few years later. With his death, the Continental Drift
Theory was quietly swept under the rug. The existing theories of
continent formation were allowed to survive, with little challenge
until the 1960's.
Wegener and Darwin

The main problem with Wegener's hypothesis of Continental Drift

was the lack of a mechanism. He did not have an explanation for
how the continents moved. Did this justify the strong reactions to his
work? Charles Darwin was missing a mechanism for the inheritance
of beneficial traits when he published the Origin of Species in 1859.
Darwin had amassed a huge amount of evidence that supported
some type of adaptive process that contributed to the evolution of
new species. He argued that with the natural variations that occur in
populations, any trait that is beneficial would make that individual
more likely to survive and pass on the trait to the next generation. If

enough of these selections occured on different beneficial traits you

could end up with completely new species. But he did not have a
mechanism for how the traits could be preserved over the
succeeding generations. The dominant theory of inheritance at the
time was that the traits of the parents were blended in the offspring.
But this would mean that any beneficial trait would be diluted out of
the population within a few generations. This is because most of the
blending over the next generations would be with individuals that did
not have the trait.
The lack of a mechanism to preserve traits didn't seem a problem.
Within 5 years, Oxford University was teaching Darwin's theory as
fact. The Oxford texts stated, "Though evidence might be required
to show that natural selection accounts for everything ascribed to it,
yet no evidence is required to show that natural selection has
always been going on, is going on now, and must ever continue to
go on. Recognizing this is an a prioricertainty, let us contemplate it
under its two distinct aspects." At Oxford, evolution by natural
selection had gone from hypothesis to a prioricertainty in the space
of 5 years. Many in the scientific community simply chose to ignore
the lack of mechanism. Wegener had no such luck with his own
theory. [_2_] .
The mechanism of inheritance was explained shortly after the Origin
of Species was published. It was ignored. In 1865, an obscure
Augustinian monk from Moldavia presented a paper to the Natural
History Society of Brunn where he discussed the results of
experiments on pea plants. The results presented by this monk,
Gregor Mendel, pointed to traits being inherited 'whole' (also known

as particulate inheritance), and that certain traits (recessive traits)

that disappear in one generation can reappear in a following
generation (see Mendel and Evolution). This would have gone a
long way in plugging at least one hole in the Darwin's theory.
Mendel's work was largely ignored until about 1900. Shortly
afterward it was incorporated into our modern view of evolution
known as the 'modern synthesis'.
Darwin's theory had another problem. His theory proposed a
gradual evolution through successive generations. The fossil record
didn't co-operate. There seemed to be a 'explosion' of different lifeforms over a relatively short time span (in geologic terms) in the
early Cambrian period. There also didn't seem to be any transitional
forms of life preceding these species. This eventually became
known as the Cambrian Explosion. Darwin himself recognized this
as a serious issue with his theory and he discussed it in the Origin
of Species. Darwin explained away the problem as a problem with
the fossil record and not with his theory. Over the course of the
twentieth century, a much better picture of the fossil record of both
the Cambrian and Pre-Cambrian eras was developed. The new
discoveries made the problem worse. Much worse. In the early
twentieth century, the American paleontologist, Charles Walcott,
discovered and excavated the Burgess Shale in British Columbia,
Canada. He found 65,000 more specimens of early Cambrian life,
many of which were complex multi-celled animals. At the time there
still was no evidence of transitional forms in the pre-Cambrian. Only
recently have they started discovering isolated examples of
moderately complex multi-celled animals from the Pre-Cambrian.

This still doesn't explain the step-change in the diversity of life-forms

in the Cambrian.
Wegener and Galileo

Wegener also shares much in common with Galileo. Wegener

probably had at least as strong a case for Continental Drift in 1929
as Galileo had for the Copernican model in 1633. Galileo's
problems over the Copernican Model are usually presented as a
conflict with the Church, and not a conflict with other scientists
(see Galileo's Battle for the Heavens). Most discussions do not
even mention the main problems associated with the Copernican
model. It was a scientific controversy with many parallels to the
Continental Drift controversy.
Galileo had his own 'tidal argument' ; one that was even more
embarassing than Wegener's. Galileo argued that the tides were
caused by the sun. How could a great scientist who had spent his
youth less than 20 kilometres from the sea be so wrong about tides!
He presented an argument for Copernicism based on there only
being 1 tide per day and where the tides cycle over the year and not
over a month. While it took a noted geologist to show that
Wegener's tidal argument was ridiculous, Galileo's tidal argument
could be proven wrong by anyone living near the sea.
The tidal argument wasn't the only problem with Galileo's defense of
Copernicism. Wegener's critics never presented strong arguments
that Continental Drift couldn't have happened. They did show that
themechanism that Wegener suggested was driving Continental

Drift was inadequate. The scientists of Galileo's day did have

scientifically valid reasons to doubt a moving earth. A moving earth
required that a phenomenon known as stellar
parallax (see Copernicism and Stellar Parallax) would be observed .
No one in Galileo's day or for two centuries after his death was able
to observe this phenomenon.
Another argument against Copernicism was very simple; the data
didn't support it! By the time of the Galileo Affair, there was 80 years
of data comparing the performance of Copernican-based tables
(Prutenic) and Ptolemaic-based tables (Alphonsine). In 1551, only 8
years after Copernicus's death, the Prutenic tables were developed
from the Copernican model to predict the positions of stars and
planets. It didn't seem that one was much better than the other. A
reasonable conclusion based on this experience is that if the
Ptolemaic was wrong, then the Copernican was not right. Today we
know these scientists were right to doubt the performance of the
Copernican model. Modern statistical analyses shows little
difference in performance between the two models[_3_] . It is the
Keplerian system of planetary motion that is taught in schools, not
the Copernican or the Ptolemaic. Galileo knew of Kepler's model
and had never accepted it during his lifetime.
Winners, Losers, Insiders, Outsiders

Why was one theory above was quickly accepted, another quickly
dismissed, and the other a cause of controversy amongst scientists.
Analysis from a strictly scientific basis won't help. All of the theories

had strengths and weaknesses. We might have to look beyond the

world of ideas to the world of people, events and things.
Darwin, was the ultimate insider in English scientific circles. His
grandfather, Erasmus, was an early student of evolution and his
half-cousin, Francis Galton, was a noted statistician who was
considered the father of eugenics. Being part of the WedgewoodDarwin clan meant having no worries about money and established
connections in the scientific world. When evolution by natural
selection was under attack, Darwin could enlist the efforts of a
Who's Who of mid-nineteenth century English science. The most
famous of the early defenses of Darwinism was not by Darwin
himself but by the famous biologist, Thomas Huxley and the social
philosopher, Herbert Spencer. Darwin's ideas were adopted by
supporters of laissez-faire capitalism. "Survival of the fittest" gave
an ethical dimension to the no-holds barred capitalism of the late
nineteenth century. Andrew Carnegie, the fabulously rich robber
baron, used elements of evolution by natural selection to justify his
own ruthless business practices.
Alfred Wegener wasn't an insider. He had to earn all his allies. His
few allies (duToit and Holmes) were no match for his many skeptics.
His place of birth may have played a role. Anti-German bias was
very strong in the 1910's and 1920's in English-speaking countries.
This resulted in German-based names for cities, streets, foods and
animal breeds being changed to names that were more 'patriotic'.
Being German wasn't Wegener's only problem; the arguments he
used to support his hypothesis crossed into disciplines that were not

his specialty. He was trained as an astronomer and worked as a

meterologist. He was considered an outsider for a reason.
The early history of the Copernican model is an example of the
effect of outside forces. The publication of Copernicus' de
Revolutionibus drew very little criticism from the Catholic countries.
The most serious early criticisms came from the Protestant
countries in Europe. The Vatican's interest in the publication had
begun 10 years earlier, after a series of lectures given to Pope
Clement VII on Copernicus's work. Any doubt of the church's
support for Copernicus' work ended with the actual publication. The
original publication included a copy of the letter from the Vatican
urging him to share his work, a dedication to the pope, and a thank
you to a bishop who was an important supporter of his work. The
involvement of the church may have muted criticism from
academics in the Catholic countries of Europe and encouraged
criticism in the Protestant countries. The reverse happened after
Galileo's trial in 1633. Galileo was tried for not obeying an order
from 1616 to not teach the Copernican theory as true but only as a
hypothesis. He was placed under house arrest in his villa in the
Tuscan hills just outside Florence (see Galileo's Battle for the
Heavens).
Science:A Question of Faith

Science depends on facts. It also depends on reason. But fact and

reason alone cannot explain how science works. The examples
chosen all had some compelling support and serious shortcomings.
Part of the answer may lie in the sociology of groups. Another part

lies in simple faith: faith that future scientists will address a theory's
shortcomings. Darwin needed an explanation for the Cambrian
Explosion and a mechanism for the preservation of traits
(see Mendel and Darwin) . Wegener needed a mechanism for
Continental Drift. Galileo needed an explanation for the lack of
stellar parallax and the poor performance of his model (seeGalileo's
Battle for the Heavens) . It is not only the community that requires
faith. The champions of these new theories require faith in their
ideas, even when facts contradict their hypotheses. In each case
above, there were facts which when combined with the current
assumptions of the time clearly contradicted their hypotheses. None
of these scientists let those facts get in the way. Paul Feyerabend, a
modern philosopher of science, presents a similar view, where he
argues that science is sometimes required to work "against the
facts". His key example was how the heliocentric system made less
sense than a geocentric system during Galileo's time. One irony
missed by discussions of science and religion is how much both
depend on faith.

Copyright Joseph Sant (2014).

Cite this page (APA).

1. Jordan, R.G, Florida Atlantic University, The Newton Project,

http://courses.science.... ,
This page provides a good summary of Wegeners problems with
the noted scientists of his time. It also details some of the
arguments he used to support his hypothesis.
..back

2. Spencer, Herbert, Williams and Norgate, The Principles of

Biology, ,
The textbook mentioned 'natural selection' no less than 25 times.
Herbert Spencer, the author, had been an important defender of
Darwin when Origin of Species was first published. Principles of
Biology was the biology text at University of Oxford between 1864
and 1867.
..back

3. Babb, Stanley E.,, Isis, Sept. 1977, Accuracy of Planetary

Theories, Particularly for Mars,, , pp. 426-34
In this article Stanley Babb compares the predictions of the
Copernican and Ptolemaic models against the actual planetary
positions using computer-based statistical analysis. The results did
not show much difference between the two systems, but the earthcentred system (the Ptolemaic) did perform better for planets such
as Mars.

..back

Reference:

What is Plate Tectonics?

by Becky Oskin, Senior Writer | December 04, 2014 06:04pm ET

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Tectonic plates of the Earth.

Credit: USGS
View full size image

From the deepest ocean trench to the tallest mountain, plate tectonics
explains the features and movement of Earth's surface in the present and
the past.
Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several
plates that glide over the mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core. The
plates act like a hard and rigid shell compared to Earth's mantle. This
strong outer layer is called the lithosphere.
Developed from the 1950s through the 1970s, plate tectonics is the modern
version of continental drift, a theory first proposed by scientist Alfred
Wegener in 1912. Wegener didn't have an explanation for how continents
could move around the planet, but researchers do now. Plate tectonics is
the unifying theory of geology, said Nicholas van der Elst, a seismologist at
Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades,
New York
Before plate tectonics, people had to come up with explanations of the
geologic features in their region that were unique to that particular region,"
Van der Elst said. "Plate tectonics unified all these descriptions and said
that you should be able to describe all geologic features as though driven
by the relative motion of these tectonic plates."
The driving force behind plate tectonics is convection in the mantle. Hot
material near the Earth's core rises, and colder mantle rock sinks. "It's kind
of like a pot boiling on a stove," Van der Elst said. The convection drive
plates tectonics through a combination of pushing and spreading apart
at mid-ocean ridges and pulling and sinking downward at subduction
zones, researchers think. Scientists continue to study and debate the
mechanisms that move the plates.
Mid-ocean ridges are gaps between tectonic plates that mantle the Earth
like seams on a baseball. Hot magma wells up at the ridges, forming new
ocean crust and shoving the plates apart. At subduction zones, two tectonic
plates meet and one slides beneath the other back into the mantle, the

layer underneath the crust. The cold, sinking plate pulls the crust behind it
downward.
Many spectacular volcanoes are found along subduction zones, such as
the "Ring of Fire" that surrounds the Pacific Ocean.

Plate boundaries
Subduction zones, or convergent margins, are one of the three types of
plate boundaries. The others are divergent and transform margins.
At a divergent margin, two plates are spreading apart, as at seafloorspreading ridges or continental rift zones such as the East Africa Rift.
Transform margins mark slip-sliding plates, such as California's San
Andreas Fault, where the North America and Pacific plates grind past each
other with a mostly horizontal motion.

This artist's cross-section illustrates the main types of plate boundaries.

Credit: USGS/Jos F. Vigil from This Dynamic Planet
View full size image

Reconstructing the past

While the Earth is 4.54 billion years old, because oceanic crust is
constantly recycled at subduction zones, the oldest seafloor is only about
200 million years old. The oldest ocean rocks are found in the northwestern
Pacific Ocean and the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Fragments of
continental crust are much older, with large chunks at least 3.8 billion years
found in Greenland.
With clues left behind in rocks and fossils, geoscientists can reconstruct the
past history of Earth's continents. Most researchers think modern plate
tectonics began about 3 billion years ago, based on ancient magmas and
minerals preserved in rocks from that period.
"We don't really know when plate tectonics as it looks today got started, but
we do know that we have continental crust that was likely scraped off a
down-going slab [a tectonic plate in a subduction zone] that is 3.8 billion
years old," Van der Elst said. "We could guess that means plate tectonics
was operating, but it might have looked very different from today."
As the continents jostle around the Earth, they occasionally come together
to form giant supercontinents, a single landmass. One of the earliest big
supercontinents, called Rodinia, assembled about 1 billion years ago. Its
breakup is linked to a global glaciation called Snowball Earth.
A more recent supercontinent called Pangaea formed about 300 million
years ago. Africa, South America, North America and Europe nestled
closely together, leaving a characteristic pattern of fossils and rocks for
geologists to decipher once Pangaea broke apart. The puzzle pieces left

behind by Pangaea, from fossils to the matching shorelines along the

Atlantic Ocean, provided the first hints that the Earth's continents move.
Follow Becky Oskin @beckyoskin. Follow
LiveScience @livescience,Facebook & Google+.

Editor's Recommendations
50 Interesting Facts About The Earth
Have There Always B
1880 Wegener born, Berlin Germany1889 Mantovani:Expanding Earth/Drift Theory1908
Taylor:Crust moved by tidal forces.1912 Wegener presents Drift Theory1915 Wegener
publishes Drift Theory1926 AAPG Conference attacks Drift Theory1930 Wegener dies in
Greenland.1937 DuToit:On Wandering Continents1956 Paleomagnetic support for Drift
Theory.1959 Discovery of sea floor spreading.1960 Tuzo Wilson:Drift Theory revived.1965
Plate Tectonics

People used to think that the Earth was static, and that it never changed. Gradually,
a body of evidence was gathered that made no sense in this model. Alfred
Wegener, Geologic Supersleuth, laid the groundwork for a whole new theory for the
large-scale changing nature of the earth.

Background on the Ground

Have you ever had the experience where you see a younger relative or friend after
not seeing them for a few years, and you're taken aback at how much they have
grown? We have an image in our minds as to what they looked like the last time we
saw them, and they are much different. If the continents of the earth move and
grow, why don't we notice that? Well, for two reasons. One, we really don't see what
whole continents look like in real time, and two, they move so slowly that people
die before any noticeable changes can take place.
As far back as 1620, people often noticed that the coastlines of North and South
America looked like they fit together with Europe and Africa. These observers
noticed these coastlines but had no easy explanation for how that could have

occurred since everyone believed the continents were stationary. Solving this
mystery would take the work of a geologic supersleuth.

Map showing the coastlines of South America and Africa

Alfred Wegener, the Geologic Supersleuth

Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, was the first to begin to work out details
to explain this interesting observation. To begin with, the current geologic theory
was that the crust was all stationary, and continents were relatively unchanging they didn't move around.
Alfred Wegener knew that other people had made observations of the fit of the
coastlines. He accidentally became drawn in to that topic by discovering evidence
that might explain that phenomenon.

Fossil Evidence
In the fall of 1911, though, he came across a scientific paper that described the
locations of identical plant and animal fossils on very different continents.
These fossils included mesosaurus, which was a freshwater reptile, lystrosaurus, a
land reptile, cynognathus, a land reptile, and glossopteris, which was a tropical
fern.
These were on very different continents, and he wondered how could these same
plants and animals be on such different land masses? How could they have
migrated over such vast distances or survived in such harsh conditions? The current
theories were that the continents were connected by land bridges that have since
eroded away or by stepping-stone islands. (Stepping-stone islands would be a
series of islands that traversed the ocean.)

Wegener developed a much simpler hypothesis that stated perhaps the continents
were all together at one point, thereby also explaining the fit of the coastline.

Photo of Alfred Wegener and an illustration of the supercontinent,

Pangea

He then theorized a supercontinent he namedPangea, which meant 'one earth'. He

realized, though, that if this idea were to be accepted, he would need much more
supporting data than he had (just fossils and fits of coastlines).

Other Clues
Other clues came from more research. He discovered that in his Pangea model,
large geologic features such as mountain ranges on separate continents often

Plate tectonics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the

second half of the 20th century.

Remnants of the Farallon Plate, deep in Earth's mantle.

It is thought that much of the plate initially went under
North America (particularly the western United States
and southwest Canada) at a very shallow angle, creating
much of the mountainous terrain in the area (particularly
the southern Rocky Mountains).
Key topics on

Geology

Grand Canyon
Overview[show]
Dating methods[show]
omposition and
structure[show]
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geology[show]
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science[show]
Earth Sciences Portal
Category Related
topics

V
T
E

Plate tectonics (from the Late Latin tectonicus,

from the Greek: "pertaining to
building")[1] is a scientific theorythat describes the
large-scale motion of Earth's lithosphere. This
theoretical model builds on the concept
of continental driftwhich was developed during the
first few decades of the 20th century.
The geoscientific community accepted the theory
after the concepts of seafloor spreading were later
developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell
of a planet (on Earth, the crust and upper mantle),
is broken up intotectonic plates. On Earth, there
are seven or eight major plates (depending on
how they are defined) and many minor plates.
Where plates meet, their relative motion
determines the type of
boundary; convergent, divergent,
or transform.Earthquakes, volcanic

activity, mountain-building, and oceanic

trench formation occur along these plate
boundaries. The lateral relative movement of the
plates typically varies from zero to 100 mm
annually.[2]
Tectonic plates are composed of oceanic
lithosphere and thicker continental lithosphere,
each topped by its own kind ofcrust. Along
convergent boundaries, subduction carries plates
into the mantle; the material lost is roughly
balanced by the formation of new (oceanic) crust
along divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In
this way, the total surface of the globe remains the
same. This prediction of plate tectonics is also
referred to as the conveyor belt principle. Earlier
theories (that still have some supporters) propose
gradual shrinking (contraction) or gradual
expansion of the globe.[3]
Tectonic plates are able to move because the
Earth's lithosphere has greater strength than the
underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density
variations in the mantle result in convection. Plate

movement is thought to be driven by a

combination of the motion of the seafloor away
from the spreading ridge (due to variations in
topography and density of the crust, which result
in differences in gravitational forces) and drag,
with downward suction, at the subduction zones.
Another explanation lies in the different forces
generated by the rotation of the globe and the
tidal forces of the Sun and Moon. The relative
importance of each of these factors and their
relationship to each other is unclear, and still the
subject of much debate.
Contents
[hide]

1 Key principles

2 Types of plate boundaries

3 Driving forces of plate motion

o

3.1 Driving forces related to mantle

dynamics

3.2 Driving forces related to gravity

o
o

3.3 Driving forces related to Earth rotation

3.4 Relative significance of each driving
force mechanism
4 Development of the theory

4.1 Summary

4.2 Continental drift

4.3 Floating continents, paleomagnetism,

and seismicity zones

4.4 Mid-oceanic ridge spreading and

convection

4.5 Magnetic striping

4.6 Definition and refining of the theory

5 Implications for biogeography

6 Plate reconstruction
o

6.1 Defining plate boundaries

6.2 Past plate motions

6.3 Formation and break-up of continents

6.4 Gallery of past configurations

7 Current plates

8 Other celestial bodies (planets, moons)

o

8.1 Venus

8.2 Mars

8.3 Galilean satellites of Jupiter

8.4 Titan, moon of Saturn

8.5 Exoplanets

9 See also

10 References
o

10.1 Notes

10.2 Cited books

10.3 Cited articles

11 External links
o

11.1 Videos

Key principles

The outer layers of the Earth are divided into

the lithosphere and asthenosphere. This is based
on differences in mechanical properties and in the
method for the transfer of heat. Mechanically, the
lithosphere is cooler and more rigid, while the
asthenosphere is hotter and flows more easily. In
terms of heat transfer, the lithosphere loses heat
byconduction, whereas the asthenosphere also
transfers heat by convection and has a
nearly adiabatic temperature gradient. This
division should not be confused with
thechemical subdivision of these same layers into
the mantle (comprising both the asthenosphere
and the mantle portion of the lithosphere) and the
crust: a given piece of mantle may be part of the
lithosphere or the asthenosphere at different times
depending on its temperature and pressure.
The key principle of plate tectonics is that the
lithosphere exists as separate and
distinct tectonic plates, which ride on the fluid-like
(visco-elastic solid) asthenosphere. Plate motions
range up to a typical 1040 mm/year (Mid-Atlantic

Ridge; about as fast as fingernails grow), to about

160 mm/year (Nazca Plate; about as fast
as hair grows).[4] The driving mechanism behind
this movement is described below.
Tectonic lithosphere plates consist of lithospheric
mantle overlain by either or both of two types of
crustal material: oceanic crust (in older texts
called sima from silicon andmagnesium)
and continental crust (sial from silicon
and aluminium). Average oceanic lithosphere is
typically 100 km (62 mi) thick;[5] its thickness is a
function of its age: as time passes, it conductively
cools and subjacent cooling mantle is added to its
base. Because it is formed at mid-ocean ridges
and spreads outwards, its thickness is therefore a
function of its distance from the mid-ocean ridge
where it was formed. For a typical distance that
oceanic lithosphere must travel before being
subducted, the thickness varies from about 6 km
(4 mi) thick at mid-ocean ridges to greater than
100 km (62 mi) at subduction zones; for shorter or
longer distances, the subduction zone (and

therefore also the mean) thickness becomes

smaller or larger, respectively.[6] Continental
lithosphere is typically ~200 km thick, though this
varies considerably between basins, mountain
ranges, and stable cratonic interiors of continents.
The two types of crust also differ in thickness, with
continental crust being considerably thicker than
oceanic (35 km vs. 6 km).[7]
The location where two plates meet is called
a plate boundary. Plate boundaries are commonly
associated with geological events such
as earthquakes and the creation of topographic
features such as mountains, volcanoes, midocean ridges, and oceanic trenches. The majority
of the world's active volcanoes occur along plate
boundaries, with the Pacific Plate's Ring of
Fire being the most active and widely known
today. These boundaries are discussed in further
detail below. Some volcanoes occur in the
interiors of plates, and these have been variously
attributed to internal plate deformation[8] and to
mantle plumes.

As explained above, tectonic plates may include

continental crust or oceanic crust, and most plates
contain both. For example, the African
Plate includes the continent and parts of the floor
of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The distinction
between oceanic crust and continental crust is
based on their modes of formation. Oceanic crust
is formed at sea-floor spreading centers, and
continental crust is formed through arc
volcanism and accretion of terranes through
tectonic processes, though some of these
terranes may containophiolite sequences, which
are pieces of oceanic crust considered to be part
of the continent when they exit the standard cycle
of formation and spreading centers and
subduction beneath continents. Oceanic crust is
also denser than continental crust owing to their
different compositions. Oceanic crust is denser
because it has less silicon and more heavier
elements ("mafic") than continental crust ("felsic").
[9]
As a result of this density stratification, oceanic
crust generally lies below sea level (for example
most of thePacific Plate), while continental crust

buoyantly projects above sea level (see the

page isostasy for explanation of this principle).

Types of plate boundaries

Main article: List of tectonic plate interactions
Three types of plate boundaries exist,[10] with a
fourth, mixed type, characterized by the way the
plates move relative to each other. They are
associated with different types of surface
phenomena. The different types of plate
boundaries are:[11][12]
1.Transform boundaries (Conservative) occur
where two lithospheric plates slide, or
perhaps more accurately, grind past each
other along transform faults, where plates are
neither created nor destroyed. The relative
motion of the two plates is either sinistral (left
side toward the observer) or dextral (right side
toward the observer). Transform faults occur
across a spreading center. Strong
earthquakes can occur along a fault. The San
Andreas Fault in California is an example of a
transform boundary exhibiting dextral motion.

2.Divergent boundaries (Constructive) occur

where two plates slide apart from each other.
At zones of ocean-to-ocean rifting, divergent
boundaries form by seafloor spreading,
allowing for the formation of new ocean basin.
As the continent splits, the ridge forms at the
spreading center, the ocean basin expands,
and finally, the plate area increases causing
many small volcanoes and/or shallow
earthquakes. At zones of continent-tocontinent rifting, divergent boundaries may
cause new ocean basin to form as the
continent splits, spreads, the central rift
collapses, and ocean fills the basin. Active
zones of Mid-ocean ridges (e.g., Mid-Atlantic
Ridge and East Pacific Rise), and continentto-continent rifting (such as Africa's East
African Rift and Valley, Red Sea) are
examples of divergent boundaries.
3.Convergent
boundaries (Destructive) (or active margins)
occur where two plates slide toward each
other to form either a subduction zone (one
plate moving underneath the other) or
a continental collision. At zones of ocean-tocontinent subduction (e.g., Western South

America, and Cascade Mountains in Western

United States), the dense oceanic lithosphere
plunges beneath the less dense continent.
Earthquakes then trace the path of the
downward-moving plate as it descends into
asthenosphere, a trench forms, and as the
subducted plate partially melts, magma rises
to form continental volcanoes. At zones of
ocean-to-ocean subduction (e.g.,
the Andes mountain range in South
America, Aleutian islands, Mariana islands,
and the Japanese island arc), older, cooler,
denser crust slips beneath less dense crust.
This causes earthquakes and a deep trench
to form in an arc shape. The upper mantle of
the subducted plate then heats and magma
rises to form curving chains of volcanic
islands. Deep marine trenches are typically
associated with subduction zones, and the
basins that develop along the active boundary
are often called "foreland basins". The
subducting slab contains
many hydrous minerals which release their
water on heating. This water then causes the
mantle to melt, producing volcanism. Closure
of ocean basins can occur at continent-to-

continent boundaries (e.g., Himalayas and

Alps): collision between masses of granitic
continental lithosphere; neither mass is
subducted; plate edges are compressed,
folded, uplifted.
4.Plate boundary zones occur where the effects
of the interactions are unclear, and the
boundaries, usually occurring along a broad
belt, are not well defined and may show
various types of movements in different
episodes.

Three types of plate boundary.

Driving forces of plate motion

Plate motion based on Global Positioning System (GPS)

satellite data from NASA JPL. The vectors show
direction and magnitude of motion.

Plate tectonics is basically a kinematic

phenomenon. Scientists agree on the observation
and deduction that the plates have moved with
respect to one another but continue to debate as
to how and when. A major question remains as to
what geodynamic mechanism motors plate
movement. Here, science diverges in different
theories.
It is generally accepted that tectonic plates are
able to move because of the relative density of
oceanic lithosphere and the relative weakness of
the asthenosphere. Dissipation of heat from the
mantle is acknowledged to be the original source

of the energy required to drive plate tectonics

through convection or large scale upwelling and
doming. The current view, though still a matter of
some debate, asserts that as a consequence, a
powerful source of plate motion is generated due
to the excess density of the oceanic lithosphere
sinking in subduction zones. When the new crust
forms at mid-ocean ridges, this oceanic
lithosphere is initially less dense than the
underlying asthenosphere, but it becomes denser
with age as it conductively cools and thickens.
The greater density of old lithosphere relative to
the underlying asthenosphere allows it to sink into
the deep mantle at subduction zones, providing
most of the driving force for plate movement. The
weakness of the asthenosphere allows the
tectonic plates to move easily towards a
subduction zone.[13] Although subduction is
believed to be the strongest force driving plate
motions, it cannot be the only force since there
are plates such as the North American Plate
which are moving, yet are nowhere being
subducted. The same is true for the

enormous Eurasian Plate. The sources of plate

motion are a matter of intensive research and
discussion among scientists. One of the main
points is that the kinematic pattern of the
movement itself should be separated clearly from
the possible geodynamic mechanism that is
invoked as the driving force of the observed
movement, as some patterns may be explained
by more than one mechanism.[14] In short, the
driving forces advocated at the moment can be
divided into three categories based on the
relationship to the movement: mantle dynamics
related, gravity related (mostly secondary forces),
and Earth rotation related.

Driving forces related to mantle

dynamics
Main article: Mantle convection
For much of the last quarter century, the leading
theory of the driving force behind tectonic plate
motions envisaged large scale convection
currents in the upper mantle which are transmitted
through the asthenosphere. This theory was

launched by Arthur Holmes and some forerunners

in the 1930s[15] and was immediately recognized
as the solution for the acceptance of the theory as
originally discussed in the papers of Alfred
Wegener in the early years of the century.
However, despite its acceptance, it was long
debated in the scientific community because the
leading ("fixist") theory still envisaged a static
Earth without moving continents up until the major
breakthroughs of the early sixties.
Two- and three-dimensional imaging of Earth's
interior (seismic tomography) shows a varying
lateral density distribution throughout the mantle.
Such density variations can be material (from rock
chemistry), mineral (from variations in mineral
structures), or thermal (through thermal expansion
and contraction from heat energy). The
manifestation of this varying lateral density
is mantle convection from buoyancy forces.[16]
How mantle convection directly and indirectly
relates to plate motion is a matter of ongoing
study and discussion in geodynamics. Somehow,

this energy must be transferred to the lithosphere

for tectonic plates to move. There are essentially
two types of forces that are thought to influence
plate motion: friction and gravity.

Basal drag (friction): Plate motion driven by

friction between the convection currents in the
asthenosphere and the more rigid overlying
lithosphere.

Slab suction (gravity): Plate motion driven by

local convection currents that exert a downward
pull on plates in subduction zones at ocean
trenches. Slab suction may occur in a
geodynamic setting where basal tractions
continue to act on the plate as it dives into the
mantle (although perhaps to a greater extent
acting on both the under and upper side of the
slab).

Lately, the convection theory has been much

debated as modern techniques based on 3D
seismic tomography still fail to recognize these
predicted large scale convection cells. Therefore,
alternative views have been proposed:

In the theory of plume tectonics developed during

the 1990s, a modified concept of mantle
convection currents is used. It asserts that super
plumes rise from the deeper mantle and are the
drivers or substitutes of the major convection
cells. These ideas, which find their roots in the
early 1930s with the so-called "fixistic" ideas of
the European and Russian Earth Science
Schools, find resonance in the modern theories
which envisage hot spots/mantle plumes which
remain fixed and are overridden by oceanic and
continental lithosphere plates over time and leave
their traces in the geological record (though these
phenomena are not invoked as real driving
mechanisms, but rather as modulators). Modern
theories that continue building on the older mantle
doming concepts and see plate movements as a
secondary phenomena are beyond the scope of
this page and are discussed elsewhere (for
example on the plume tectonics page).
Another theory is that the mantle flows neither in
cells nor large plumes but rather as a series of

channels just below the Earth's crust, which then

provide basal friction to the lithosphere. This
theory, called "surge tectonics", became quite
popular in geophysics and geodynamics during
the 1980s and 1990s.[17]

Driving forces related to gravity

Forces related to gravity are usually invoked as
secondary phenomena within the framework of a
more general driving mechanism such as the
various forms of mantle dynamics described
above.
Gravitational sliding away from a spreading ridge:
According to many authors, plate motion is driven
by the higher elevation of plates at ocean ridges.
[18]
As oceanic lithosphere is formed at spreading
ridges from hot mantle material, it gradually cools
and thickens with age (and thus adds distance
from the ridge). Cool oceanic lithosphere is
significantly denser than the hot mantle material
from which it is derived and so with increasing
thickness it gradually subsides into the mantle to

compensate the greater load. The result is a slight

lateral incline with increased distance from the
ridge axis.
This force is regarded as a secondary force and is
often referred to as "ridge push". This is a
misnomer as nothing is "pushing" horizontally and
tensional features are dominant along ridges. It is
more accurate to refer to this mechanism as
gravitational sliding as variable topography across
the totality of the plate can vary considerably and
the topography of spreading ridges is only the
most prominent feature. Other mechanisms
generating this gravitational secondary force
include flexural bulging of the lithosphere before it
dives underneath an adjacent plate which
produces a clear topographical feature that can
offset, or at least affect, the influence of
topographical ocean ridges, andmantle
plumes and hot spots, which are postulated to
impinge on the underside of tectonic plates.
Slab-pull: Current scientific opinion is that the
asthenosphere is insufficiently competent or rigid

to directly cause motion by friction along the base

of the lithosphere. Slab pull is therefore most
widely thought to be the greatest force acting on
the plates. In this current understanding, plate
motion is mostly driven by the weight of cold,
dense plates sinking into the mantle at trenches.
[19]
Recent models indicate that trench
suction plays an important role as well. However,
as the North American Plate is nowhere being
subducted, yet it is in motion presents a problem.
The same holds for the African, Eurasian,
and Antarctic plates.
Gravitational sliding away from mantle doming:
According to older theories, one of the driving
mechanisms of the plates is the existence of large
scale asthenosphere/mantle domes which cause
the gravitational sliding of lithosphere plates away
from them. This gravitational sliding represents a
secondary phenomenon of this basically vertically
oriented mechanism. This can act on various
scales, from the small scale of one island arc up
to the larger scale of an entire ocean basin. [20]

Driving forces related to Earth rotation

Alfred Wegener, being a meteorologist, had
proposed tidal forces and pole flight force as the
main driving mechanisms behind continental drift;
however, these forces were considered far too
small to cause continental motion as the concept
then was of continents plowing through oceanic
crust.[21] Therefore, Wegener later changed his
position and asserted that convection currents are
the main driving force of plate tectonics in the last
edition of his book in 1929.
However, in the plate tectonics context (accepted
since the seafloor spreading proposals of Heezen,
Hess, Dietz, Morley, Vine, and Matthews (see
below) during the early 1960s), oceanic crust is
suggested to be in motion with the continents
which caused the proposals related to Earth
rotation to be reconsidered. In more recent
literature, these driving forces are:

1.Tidal drag due to the gravitational force

the Moon (and the Sun) exerts on the crust of
the Earth[22]
2.Shear strain of the Earth globe due to N-S
compression related to its rotation and
modulations;
3.Pole flight force: equatorial drift due to
rotation and centrifugal effects: tendency of
the plates to move from the poles to the
equator ("Polflucht");
4.The Coriolis effect acting on plates when they
move around the globe;
5.Global deformation of the geoid due to small
displacements of rotational pole with respect
to the Earth's crust;
6.Other smaller deformation effects of the crust
due to wobbles and spin movements of the
Earth rotation on a smaller time scale.
For these mechanisms to be overall valid,
systematic relationships should exist all over the
globe between the orientation and kinematics of
deformation and the

geographicallatitudinal and longitudinal grid of the

Earth itself. Ironically, these systematic relations
studies in the second half of the nineteenth
century and the first half of the twentieth century
underline exactly the opposite: that the plates had
not moved in time, that the deformation grid was
fixed with respect to the Earth equator and axis,
and that gravitational driving forces were
generally acting vertically and caused only local
horizontal movements (the so-called pre-plate
tectonic, "fixist theories"). Later studies (discussed
below on this page), therefore, invoked many of
the relationships recognized during this pre-plate
tectonics period to support their theories (see the
anticipations and reviews in the work of van Dijk
and collaborators).[23]
Of the many forces discussed in this paragraph,
tidal force is still highly debated and defended as
a possible principle driving force of plate
tectonics. The other forces are only used in global
geodynamic models not using plate tectonics
concepts (therefore beyond the discussions

treated in this section) or proposed as minor

modulations within the overall plate tectonics
model.
In 1973, George W. Moore[24] of the USGS and R.
C. Bostrom[25] presented evidence for a general
westward drift of the Earth's lithosphere with
respect to the mantle. He concluded that tidal
forces (the tidal lag or "friction") caused by the
Earth's rotation and the forces acting upon it by
the Moon are a driving force for plate tectonics. As
the Earth spins eastward beneath the moon, the
moon's gravity ever so slightly pulls the Earth's
surface layer back westward, just as proposed by
Alfred Wegener (see above). In a more recent
2006 study,[26] scientists reviewed and advocated
these earlier proposed ideas. It has also been
suggested recently in Lovett (2006) that this
observation may also explain
why Venus and Mars have no plate tectonics, as
Venus has no moon and Mars' moons are too
small to have significant tidal effects on the planet.
In a recent paper,[27] it was suggested that, on the

other hand, it can easily be observed that many

plates are moving north and eastward, and that
the dominantly westward motion of the Pacific
ocean basins derives simply from the eastward
bias of the Pacific spreading center (which is not a
predicted manifestation of such lunar forces). In
the same paper the authors admit, however, that
relative to the lower mantle, there is a slight
westward component in the motions of all the
plates. They demonstrated though that the
westward drift, seen only for the past 30 Ma, is
attributed to the increased dominance of the
steadily growing and accelerating Pacific plate.
The debate is still open.

Relative significance of each driving

force mechanism
The actual vector of a plate's motion is a function
of all the forces acting on the plate; however,
therein lies the problem regarding the degree to
which each process contributes to the overall
motion of each tectonic plate.

The diversity of geodynamic settings and the

properties of each plate result from the impact of
the various processes actively driving each
individual plate. One method of dealing with this
problem is to consider the relative rate at which
each plate is moving as well as the evidence
related to the significance of each process to the
overall driving force on the plate.
One of the most significant correlations
discovered to date is that lithospheric plates
attached to downgoing (subducting) plates move
much faster than plates not attached to
subducting plates. The Pacific plate, for instance,
is essentially surrounded by zones of subduction
(the so-called Ring of Fire) and moves much
faster than the plates of the Atlantic basin, which
are attached (perhaps one could say 'welded') to
adjacent continents instead of subducting plates.
It is thus thought that forces associated with the
downgoing plate (slab pull and slab suction) are
the driving forces which determine the motion of
plates, except for those plates which are not being

subducted.[19] The driving forces of plate motion

continue to be active subjects of on-going
research within geophysics and tectonophysics.

Development of the theory

Further information: Timeline of the development
of tectonophysics

Summary

Detailed map showing the tectonic plates with their

movement vectors.

In line with other previous and contemporaneous

proposals, in 1912 the meteorologist Alfred
Wegener amply described what he called
continental drift, expanded in his 1915 book The
Origin of Continents and Oceans[28]and the
scientific debate started that would end up fifty

years later in the theory of plate tectonics.

[29]
Starting from the idea (also expressed by his
forerunners) that the present continents once
formed a single land mass (which was
called Pangea later on) that drifted apart, thus
releasing the continents from the Earth's mantle
and likening them to "icebergs" of low
density granite floating on a sea of denser basalt.
[30]
Supporting evidence for the idea came from the
dove-tailing outlines of South America's east coast
and Africa's west coast, and from the matching of
the rock formations along these edges.
Confirmation of their previous contiguous nature
also came from the fossil
plants Glossopteris and Gangamopteris, and
the therapsid or mammal-like reptile Lystrosaurus,
all widely distributed over South America, Africa,
Antarctica, India and Australia. The evidence for
such an erstwhile joining of these continents was
patent to field geologists working in the southern
hemisphere. The South African Alex du Toit put
together a mass of such information in his 1937
publication Our Wandering Continents, and went

further than Wegener in recognising the strong

links between the Gondwana fragments.
But without detailed evidence and a force
sufficient to drive the movement, the theory was
not generally accepted: the Earth might have a
solid crust and mantle and a liquid core, but there
seemed to be no way that portions of the crust
could move around. Distinguished scientists, such
as Harold Jeffreys and Charles Schuchert, were
outspoken critics of continental drift.
Despite much opposition, the view of continental
drift gained support and a lively debate started
between "drifters" or "mobilists" (proponents of the
theory) and "fixists" (opponents). During the
1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the former reached
important milestones proposing that convection
currents might have driven the plate movements,
and that spreading may have occurred below the
sea within the oceanic crust. Concepts close to
the elements now incorporated in plate tectonics
were proposed by geophysicists and geologists

(both fixists and mobilists) like Vening-Meinesz,

Holmes, and Umbgrove.
One of the first pieces of geophysical evidence
that was used to support the movement of
lithospheric plates came from paleomagnetism.
This is based on the fact that rocks of different
ages show a variable magnetic field direction,
evidenced by studies since the midnineteenth
century. The magnetic north and south poles
reverse through time, and, especially important in
paleotectonic studies, the relative position of the
magnetic north pole varies through time. Initially,
during the first half of the twentieth century, the
latter phenomenon was explained by introducing
what was called "polar wander" (see apparent
polar wander), i.e., it was assumed that the north
pole location had been shifting through time. An
alternative explanation, though, was that the
continents had moved (shifted and rotated)
relative to the north pole, and each continent, in
fact, shows its own "polar wander path". During
the late 1950s it was successfully shown on two

occasions that these data could show the validity

of continental drift: by Keith Runcorn in a paper in
1956,[31] and by Warren Carey in a symposium
held in March 1956.[32]
The second piece of evidence in support of
continental drift came during the late 1950s and
early 60s from data on the bathymetry of the
deep ocean floors and the nature of the oceanic
crust such as magnetic properties and, more
generally, with the development of marine
geology[33] which gave evidence for the association
of seafloor spreading along the mid-oceanic
ridges and magnetic field reversals, published
between 1959 and 1963 by Heezen, Dietz, Hess,
Mason, Vine & Matthews, and Morley.[34]
Simultaneous advances in early seismic imaging
techniques in and around Wadati-Benioff
zones along the trenches bounding many
continental margins, together with many other
geophysical (e.g. gravimetric) and geological
observations, showed how the oceanic crust
could disappear into the mantle, providing the

mechanism to balance the extension of the ocean

basins with shortening along its margins.
All this evidence, both from the ocean floor and
from the continental margins, made it clear
around 1965 that continental drift was feasible
and the theory of plate tectonics, which was
defined in a series of papers between 1965 and
1967, was born, with all its extraordinary
explanatory and predictive power. The theory
revolutionized the Earth sciences, explaining a
diverse range of geological phenomena and their
implications in other studies such
as paleogeography and paleobiology.

Continental drift
For more details on this topic, see Continental
drift.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
geologists assumed that the Earth's major
features were fixed, and that most geologic
features such as basin development and
mountain ranges could be explained by vertical

crustal movement, described in what is called

the geosynclinal theory. Generally, this was
placed in the context of a contracting planet Earth
due to heat loss in the course of a relatively short
geological time.

Alfred Wegener in Greenland in the winter of 1912-13.

It was observed as early as 1596 that the

opposite coasts of the Atlantic Oceanor, more
precisely, the edges of the continental shelves
have similar shapes and seem to have once fitted
together.[35]
Since that time many theories were proposed to
explain this apparent complementarity, but the
assumption of a solid Earth made these various
proposals difficult to accept.[36]

The discovery of radioactivity and its

associated heating properties in 1895 prompted a
re-examination of the apparent age of the Earth.
[37]
This had previously been estimated by its
cooling rate and assumption the Earth's surface
radiated like a black body.[38]Those calculations
had implied that, even if it started at red heat, the
Earth would have dropped to its present
temperature in a few tens of millions of years.
Armed with the knowledge of a new heat source,
scientists realized that the Earth would be much
older, and that its core was still sufficiently hot to
be liquid.
By 1915, after having published a first article in
1912,[39] Alfred Wegener was making serious
arguments for the idea of continental drift in the
first edition of The Origin of Continents and
Oceans.[28] In that book (re-issued in four
successive editions up to the final one in 1936),
he noted how the east coast of South
America and the west coast of Africa looked as if
they were once attached. Wegener was not the

first to note this (Abraham Ortelius, Antonio

Snider-Pellegrini, Eduard Suess, Roberto
Mantovani and Frank Bursley Taylor preceded him
just to mention a few), but he was the first to
marshal significantfossil and paleo-topographical
and climatological evidence to support this simple
observation (and was supported in this by
researchers such as Alex du Toit). Furthermore,
when the rock strata of the margins of separate
continents are very similar it suggests that these
rocks were formed in the same way, implying that
they were joined initially. For instance, parts
of Scotland and Ireland contain rocks very similar
to those found in Newfoundland and New
Brunswick. Furthermore, the Caledonian
Mountains of Europe and parts of the Appalachian
Mountains of North America are very similar
in structure and lithology.
However, his ideas were not taken seriously by
many geologists, who pointed out that there was
no apparent mechanism for continental drift.
Specifically, they did not see how continental rock

could plow through the much denser rock that

makes up oceanic crust. Wegener could not
explain the force that drove continental drift, and
his vindication did not come until after his death in
1930.

Floating continents, paleomagnetism,

and seismicity zones

Global earthquake epicenters, 19631998

As it was observed early that although granite

existed on continents, seafloor seemed to be
composed of denser basalt, the prevailing
concept during the first half of the twentieth
century was that there were two types of crust,
named "sial" (continental type crust) and "sima"
(oceanic type crust). Furthermore, it was
supposed that a static shell of strata was present

under the continents. It therefore looked apparent

that a layer of basalt (sial) underlies the
continental rocks.
However, based on abnormalities in plumb line
deflection by the Andes in Peru, Pierre
Bouguer had deduced that less-dense mountains
must have a downward projection into the denser
layer underneath. The concept that mountains
had "roots" was confirmed by George B. Airy a
hundred years later, during study
of Himalayan gravitation, and seismic studies
detected corresponding density variations.
Therefore, by the mid-1950s, the question
remained unresolved as to whether mountain
roots were clenched in surrounding basalt or were
floating on it like an iceberg.
During the 20th century, improvements in and
greater use of seismic instruments such
as seismographs enabled scientists to learn that
earthquakes tend to be concentrated in specific
areas, most notably along the oceanic trenches
and spreading ridges. By the late 1920s,

seismologists were beginning to identify several

prominent earthquake zones parallel to the
trenches that typically were inclined 4060 from
the horizontal and extended several hundred
kilometers into the Earth. These zones later
became known as Wadati-Benioff zones, or
simply Benioff zones, in honor of the
seismologists who first recognized them, Kiyoo
Wadati of Japan and Hugo Benioff of the United
States. The study of global seismicity greatly
advanced in the 1960s with the establishment of
the Worldwide Standardized Seismograph
Network (WWSSN)[40] to monitor the compliance of
the 1963 treaty banning above-ground testing of
nuclear weapons. The much improved data from
the WWSSN instruments allowed seismologists to
map precisely the zones of earthquake
concentration world wide.
Meanwhile, debates developed around the
phenomena of polar wander. Since the early
debates of continental drift, scientists had
discussed and used evidence that polar drift had

occurred because continents seemed to have

moved through different climatic zones during the
past. Furthermore, paleomagnetic data had
shown that the magnetic pole had also shifted
during time. Reasoning in an opposite way, the
continents might have shifted and rotated, while
the pole remained relatively fixed. The first time
the evidence of magnetic polar wander was used
to support the movements of continents was in a
paper by Keith Runcorn in 1956,[31] and successive
papers by him and his students Ted Irving(who
was actually the first to be convinced of the fact
that paleomagnetism supported continental drift)
and Ken Creer.
This was immediately followed by a symposium
in Tasmania in March 1956.[41] In this symposium,
the evidence was used in the theory of
an expansion of the global crust. In this
hypothesis the shifting of the continents can be
simply explained by a large increase in size of the
Earth since its formation. However, this was
unsatisfactory because its supporters could offer

no convincing mechanism to produce a significant

expansion of the Earth. Certainly there is no
evidence that the moon has expanded in the past
3 billion years; other work would soon show that
the evidence was equally in support of continental
drift on a globe with a stable radius.
During the thirties up to the late fifties, works
by Vening-Meinesz, Holmes, Umbgrove, and
numerous others outlined concepts that were
close or nearly identical to modern plate tectonics
theory. In particular, the English geologist Arthur
Holmes proposed in 1920 that plate junctions
might lie beneath the sea, and in 1928 that
convection currents within the mantle might be the
driving force.[42] Often, these contributions are
forgotten because:

At the time, continental drift was not accepted.

Some of these ideas were discussed in the
context of abandoned fixistic ideas of a
deforming globe without continental drift or an
expanding Earth.

They were published during an episode of

extreme political and economic instability that
hampered scientific communication.

Many were published by European scientists

and at first not mentioned or given little credit in
the papers on sea floor spreading published by
the American researchers in the 1960s.

Mid-oceanic ridge spreading and

convection
For more details on Mid-ocean ridge,
see Seafloor spreading.
In 1947, a team of scientists led by Maurice
Ewing utilizing the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution's research vessel Atlantis and an array
of instruments, confirmed the existence of a rise
in the central Atlantic Ocean, and found that the
floor of the seabed beneath the layer of sediments
consisted of basalt, not the granite which is the
main constituent of continents. They also found
that the oceanic crust was much thinner than
continental crust. All these new findings raised
important and intriguing questions.[43]

The new data that had been collected on the

ocean basins also showed particular
characteristics regarding the bathymetry. One of
the major outcomes of these datasets was that all
along the globe, a system of mid-oceanic ridges
was detected. An important conclusion was that
along this system, new ocean floor was being
created, which led to the concept of the "Great
Global Rift". This was described in the crucial
paper of Bruce Heezen (1960),[44] which would
trigger a real revolution in thinking. A profound
consequence of seafloor spreading is that new
crust was, and still is, being continually created
along the oceanic ridges. Therefore, Heezen
advocated the so-called "expanding Earth"
hypothesis of S. Warren Carey (see above). So,
still the question remained: how can new crust be
continuously added along the oceanic ridges
without increasing the size of the Earth? In reality,
this question had been solved already by
numerous scientists during the forties and the
fifties, like Arthur Holmes, Vening-Meinesz,
Coates and many others: The crust in excess

disappeared along what were called the oceanic

trenches, where so-called "subduction" occurred.
Therefore, when various scientists during the
early sixties started to reason on the data at their
disposal regarding the ocean floor, the pieces of
the theory quickly fell into place.
The question particularly intrigued Harry
Hammond Hess, a Princeton University geologist
and a Naval Reserve Rear Admiral, and Robert S.
Dietz, a scientist with the U.S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey who first coined the
term seafloor spreading. Dietz and Hess (the
former published the same idea one year earlier
in Nature,[45] but priority belongs to Hess who had
already distributed an unpublished manuscript of
his 1962 article by 1960)[46] were among the small
handful who really understood the broad
implications of sea floor spreading and how it
would eventually agree with the, at that time,
unconventional and unaccepted ideas of
continental drift and the elegant and mobilistic

models proposed by previous workers like

Holmes.
In the same year, Robert R. Coats of the U.S.
Geological Survey described the main features
of island arc subduction in the Aleutian Islands.
His paper, though little noted (and even ridiculed)
at the time, has since been called "seminal" and
"prescient". In reality, it actually shows that the
work by the European scientists on island arcs
and mountain belts performed and published
during the 1930s up until the 1950s was applied
and appreciated also in the United States.
If the Earth's crust was expanding along the
oceanic ridges, Hess and Dietz reasoned like
Holmes and others before them, it must be
shrinking elsewhere. Hess followed Heezen,
suggesting that new oceanic crust continuously
spreads away from the ridges in a conveyor belt
like motion. And, using the mobilistic concepts
developed before, he correctly concluded that
many millions of years later, the oceanic crust
eventually descends along the continental

margins where oceanic trenches very deep,

narrow canyons are formed, e.g. along the rim
of the Pacific Ocean basin. The important step
Hess made was that convection currents would
be the driving force in this process, arriving at the
same conclusions as Holmes had decades before
with the only difference that the thinning of the
ocean crust was performed using Heezen's
mechanism of spreading along the ridges. Hess
therefore concluded that the Atlantic Ocean was
expanding while the Pacific Ocean was shrinking.
As old oceanic crust is "consumed" in the
trenches (like Holmes and others, he thought this
was done by thickening of the continental
lithosphere, not, as now understood, by
underthrusting at a larger scale of the oceanic
crust itself into the mantle), new magma rises and
erupts along the spreading ridges to form new
crust. In effect, the ocean basins are perpetually
being "recycled," with the creation of new crust
and the destruction of old oceanic lithosphere
occurring simultaneously. Thus, the new mobilistic
concepts neatly explained why the Earth does not

get bigger with sea floor spreading, why there is

so little sediment accumulation on the ocean floor,
and why oceanic rocks are much younger than
continental rocks.

Magnetic striping

Seafloor magnetic striping.

A demonstration of magnetic striping. (The darker the

color is, the closer it is to normal polarity)

For more details on this topic, see Vine

MatthewsMorley hypothesis.
Beginning in the 1950s, scientists like Victor
Vacquier, using magnetic instruments
(magnetometers) adapted from airborne devices

developed during World War II to

detect submarines, began recognizing odd
magnetic variations across the ocean floor. This
finding, though unexpected, was not entirely
surprising because it was known that basaltthe
iron-rich, volcanic rock making up the ocean floor
contains a strongly magnetic mineral
(magnetite) and can locally distort compass
readings. This distortion was recognized by
Icelandic mariners as early as the late 18th
century. More important, because the presence of
magnetite gives the basalt measurable magnetic
properties, these newly discovered magnetic
variations provided another means to study the
deep ocean floor. When newly formed rock cools,
such magnetic materials recorded the Earth's
magnetic field at the time.
As more and more of the seafloor was mapped
during the 1950s, the magnetic variations turned
out not to be random or isolated occurrences, but
instead revealed recognizable patterns. When
these magnetic patterns were mapped over a

wide region, the ocean floor showed a zebra-like

pattern: one stripe with normal polarity and the
adjoining stripe with reversed polarity. The overall
pattern, defined by these alternating bands of
normally and reversely polarized rock, became
known as magnetic striping, and was published
by Ron G. Mason and co-workers in 1961, who
did not find, though, an explanation for these data
in terms of sea floor spreading, like Vine,
Matthews and Morley a few years later.[47]
The discovery of magnetic striping called for an
explanation. In the early 1960s scientists such as
Heezen, Hess and Dietz had begun to theorise
that mid-ocean ridges mark structurally weak
zones where the ocean floor was being ripped in
two lengthwise along the ridge crest (see the
previous paragraph). New magma from deep
within the Earth rises easily through these weak
zones and eventually erupts along the crest of the
ridges to create new oceanic crust. This process,
at first denominated the "conveyer belt
hypothesis" and later called seafloor spreading,

operating over many millions of years continues to

form new ocean floor all across the 50,000 kmlong system of mid-ocean ridges.
Only four years after the maps with the "zebra
pattern" of magnetic stripes were published, the
link between sea floor spreading and these
patterns was correctly placed, independently
by Lawrence Morley, and by Fred
Vine and Drummond Matthews, in 1963,[48] now
called the Vine-Matthews-Morley hypothesis. This
hypothesis linked these patterns to geomagnetic
reversals and was supported by several lines of
evidence:[49]
1.the stripes are symmetrical around the crests
of the mid-ocean ridges; at or near the crest
of the ridge, the rocks are very young, and
they become progressively older away from
the ridge crest;
2.the youngest rocks at the ridge crest always
have present-day (normal) polarity;
3.stripes of rock parallel to the ridge crest
alternate in magnetic polarity (normal-

reversed-normal, etc.), suggesting that they

were formed during different epochs
documenting the (already known from
independent studies) normal and reversal
episodes of the Earth's magnetic field.
By explaining both the zebra-like magnetic
striping and the construction of the mid-ocean
ridge system, the seafloor spreading hypothesis
(SFS) quickly gained converts and represented
another major advance in the development of the
plate-tectonics theory. Furthermore, the oceanic
crust now came to be appreciated as a natural
"tape recording" of the history of the geomagnetic
field reversals (GMFR) of the Earth's magnetic
field. Today, extensive studies are dedicated to
the calibration of the normal-reversal patterns in
the oceanic crust on one hand and known
timescales derived from the dating of basalt layers
in sedimentary sequences (magnetostratigraphy)
on the other, to arrive at estimates of past
spreading rates and plate reconstructions.

Definition and refining of the theory

After all these considerations, Plate Tectonics (or,
as it was initially called "New Global Tectonics")
became quickly accepted in the scientific world,
and numerous papers followed that defined the
concepts:

In 1965, Tuzo Wilson who had been a

promotor of the sea floor spreading hypothesis
and continental drift from the very
beginning[50] added the concept of transform
faultsto the model, completing the classes of
fault types necessary to make the mobility of the
plates on the globe work out.[51]

A symposium on continental drift was held at

the Royal Society of London in 1965 which must
be regarded as the official start of the
acceptance of plate tectonics by the scientific
community, and which abstracts are issued
as Blacket, Bullard & Runcorn (1965). In this
symposium, Edward Bullard and co-workers
showed with a computer calculation how the
continents along both sides of the Atlantic would

best fit to close the ocean, which became

known as the famous "Bullard's Fit".

In 1966 Wilson published the paper that

referred to previous plate tectonic
reconstructions, introducing the concept of what
is now known as the "Wilson Cycle".[52]

In 1967, at the American Geophysical Union's

meeting, W. Jason Morgan proposed that the
Earth's surface consists of 12 rigid plates that
move relative to each other.[53]

Two months later, Xavier Le Pichon published

a complete model based on 6 major plates with
their relative motions, which marked the final
acceptance by the scientific community of plate
tectonics.[54]

In the same year, McKenzie and Parker

independently presented a model similar to
Morgan's using translations and rotations on a
sphere to define the plate motions.[55]

Implications for biogeography

Continental drift theory helps biogeographers to

explain the disjunct biogeographic distribution of
present day life found on different continents but
having similar ancestors.[56] In particular, it explains
the Gondwanan distribution of ratites and
the Antarctic flora.

Plate reconstruction
Main article: Plate reconstruction
Reconstruction is used to establish past (and
future) plate configurations, helping determine the
shape and make-up of ancient supercontinents
and providing a basis for paleogeography.

Defining plate boundaries

Current plate boundaries are defined by their
seismicity.[57] Past plate boundaries within existing
plates are identified from a variety of evidence,
such as the presence ofophiolites that are
indicative of vanished oceans.[58]

Past plate motions

Tectonic motion first began around three billion
years ago.[59][why?]
Various types of quantitative and semi-quantitative
information are available to constrain past plate
motions. The geometric fit between continents,
such as between west Africa and South America
is still an important part of plate reconstruction.
Magnetic stripe patterns provide a reliable guide
to relative plate motions going back into
the Jurassicperiod.[60] The tracks of hotspots give
absolute reconstructions, but these are only
available back to the Cretaceous.[61] Older
reconstructions rely mainly on paleomagnetic pole
data, although these only constrain the latitude
and rotation, but not the longitude. Combining
poles of different ages in a particular plate to
produce apparent polar wander paths provides a
method for comparing the motions of different
plates through time.[62] Additional evidence comes
from the distribution of certain sedimentary

rock types,[63]faunal provinces shown by particular

fossil groups, and the position of orogenic belts.[61]

Formation and break-up of continents

The movement of plates has caused the formation
and break-up of continents over time, including
occasional formation of a supercontinent that
contains most or all of the continents. The
supercontinent Columbia or Nuna formed during a
period of 2,000 to 1,800 million years ago and
broke up about 1,500 to 1,300 million years ago.
[64]
The supercontinent Rodinia is thought to have
formed about 1 billion years ago and to have
embodied most or all of Earth's continents, and
broken up into eight continents around600 million
years ago. The eight continents later reassembled into another supercontinent
called Pangaea; Pangaea broke up
into Laurasia (which became North America and
Eurasia) and Gondwana (which became the
remaining continents).

The Himalayas, the world's tallest mountain

range, are assumed to have been formed by the
collision of two major plates. Before uplift, they
were covered by the Tethys Ocean.

Gallery of past configurations

Interpretive simulation of past continental
movement and shorelines, with time given in
millions of years ago (Ma). For more complete
timeline of images, see Gallery of continental
movement.

500 Ma

400 Ma

Current plates
Main article: List of tectonic plates

Depending on how they are defined, there are

usually seven or eight "major" plates: African,
Antarctic, Eurasian, North American, South
American, Pacific, and Indo-Australian. The latter
is sometimes subdivided into
the Indian and Australian plates.
There are dozens of smaller plates, the seven
largest of which are the Arabian, Caribbean, Juan

de Fuca, Cocos, Nazca, Philippine

Sea and Scotia.
The current motion of the tectonic plates is today
determined by remote sensing satellite data sets,
calibrated with ground station measurements.

Other celestial bodies (planets,

moons)
The appearance of plate tectonics on terrestrial
planets is related to planetary mass, with more
massive planets than Earth expected to exhibit
plate tectonics. Earth may be a borderline case,
owing its tectonic activity to abundant
water [65] (silica and water form a deep eutectic.)

Venus
See also: Geology of Venus
Venus shows no evidence of active plate
tectonics. There is debatable evidence of active
tectonics in the planet's distant past; however,
events taking place since then (such as the

plausible and generally accepted hypothesis that

the Venusian lithosphere has thickened greatly
over the course of several hundred million years)
has made constraining the course of its geologic
record difficult. However, the numerous wellpreserved impact craters have been utilized as
a dating method to approximately date the
Venusian surface (since there are thus far no
known samples of Venusian rock to be dated by
more reliable methods). Dates derived are
dominantly in the range 500 to 750 million years
ago, although ages of up to 1,200 million years
ago have been calculated. This research has led
to the fairly well accepted hypothesis that Venus
has undergone an essentially complete volcanic
resurfacing at least once in its distant past, with
the last event taking place approximately within
the range of estimated surface ages. While the
mechanism of such an impressive thermal event
remains a debated issue in Venusian
geosciences, some scientists are advocates of
processes involving plate motion to some extent.

One explanation for Venus' lack of plate tectonics

is that on Venus temperatures are too high for
significant water to be present.[66][67] The Earth's
crust is soaked with water, and water plays an
important role in the development of shear zones.
Plate tectonics requires weak surfaces in the crust
along which crustal slices can move, and it may
well be that such weakening never took place on
Venus because of the absence of water. However,
some researchers remain convinced that plate
tectonics is or was once active on this planet.

Mars
See also: Geology of Mars
Mars is considerably smaller than Earth and
Venus, and there is evidence for ice on its surface
and in its crust.
In the 1990s, it was proposed that Martian Crustal
Dichotomy was created by plate tectonic
processes.[68] Scientists today disagree, and
believe that it was created either by upwelling
within the Martian mantle that thickened the crust

of the Southern Highlands and

formed Tharsis[69] or by a giant impact that
excavated the Northern Lowlands.[70]
Valles Marineris may be a tectonic boundary.[71]
Observations made of the magnetic field of Mars
by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 1999
showed patterns of magnetic striping discovered
on this planet. Some scientists interpreted these
as requiring plate tectonic processes, such as
seafloor spreading.[72] However, their data fail a
"magnetic reversal test", which is used to see if
they were formed by flipping polarities of a global
magnetic field.[73]

Galilean satellites of Jupiter

Some of the satellites of Jupiter have features that
may be related to plate-tectonic style deformation,
although the materials and specific mechanisms
may be different from plate-tectonic activity on
Earth. On 8 September 2014, NASA reported
finding evidence of plate tectonics on Europa, a
satellite of Jupiter - the first sign of such

geological activity on another world other than

Earth.[74]

Titan, moon of Saturn

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, was reported to
show tectonic activity in images taken by
the Huygens Probe, which landed on Titan on
January 14, 2005.[75]

Exoplanets
On Earth-sized planets, plate tectonics is more
likely if there are oceans of water; however, in
2007, two independent teams of researchers
came to opposing conclusions about the
likelihood of plate tectonics on larger superearths[76][77] with one team saying that plate
tectonics would be episodic or stagnant[78] and the
other team saying that plate tectonics is very likely
on super-earths even if the planet is dry.[65]
Ang hari at reyna ay may tatlong anak na babae.

Lahat ng tatlong ng mga batang babae ay kaakitakit, ngunit ang isa sa mga ito ay ganap na
napakarilag - Psyche.
Mga tao na dumating mula sa lahat sa paligid
lamang na tingnan kung paano maganda ang
pag-iisip ay.
Lahat ng pagsamba na ito ng pag-iisip ay
makakakuha ng ganap sa labas ng mga kamay;
men simulan sumasamba sa kanya bilang kung
siya ay isang diyosa at huwag pansinin ang mga
dambana ng diyosa ng pag-ibig at kagandahan,
Venus (aka Aphrodite).
Lalaki kahit simulan na nagsasabi na pag-iisip ay
mas maganda kaysa Venus. (Naku.)
Tumaya kami na maaari mong hulaan na nagalit
ang tungkol dito. Yup, na akma - Venus.
Ang diyosa ng pag-ibig ay makakakuha ng uri ng
nakamumuhi at order ang kanyang anak, Kupido
(aka seks), upang pumunta at parusahan pag-iisip
sa pamamagitan ng paggawa ng kanyang umibig
sa ugliest bagay sa paligid.

Kupido sneaks sa bedroom iisip na gawin ang

pag-bid ng kanyang ina, ngunit, kapag nakikita
niya kung paano maganda pag-iisip ay, siya ang
lahat ay makakakuha ng ginulo at matulis ang
kanyang sarili sa kanyang sariling arrow.
Kupido ay bumaba agad sa pag-ibig sa pag-iisip
at dahon nang hindi ginagawa kung ano ang
sinabi sa kanya ng kanyang ina upang gawin.
Patuloy sa buhay pag-iisip ni tulad ng dati: lahat
ng tao ay dumating sa tumanga sa kung paano
mainit siya.
Gayunman, dahil ang Venus ay sa mga ito para
sa kanya, walang kailanman ay bumaba sa pagibig sa pag-iisip.
Dalawang madre pag-iisip ni end up sa pagkuha
ng asawa, ngunit pag-iisip ay mapagmataas na
nakaupo mag-isa sa kanyang kuwarto.
Pagkuha ng nag-aalala na sila na ginawa ng ilang
mga diyos ay galit, ang mga magulang pag-iisip ni
magpasya upang pumunta kumunsulta sa
sanggunian ng Apollo tungkol sa hinaharap ng
kanilang mga anak na babae.

Sanggunian ay nagsasabi sa kanila na ang pagiisip ay nakalaan na asawa ng isang halimaw na

kahit ang diyos ni mortal maaaring pigilan.
Magulang pag-iisip ni ay aatasan na iwanan ang
kanyang sa isang bundok upang hintayin ang
kanyang napakapangit asawa. Sigaw nila ng
maraming tungkol sa mga ito, ngunit sila pa rin
ito.
Kaya, pag-iisip ay balahibo sa tuktok ng bundok,
fully umaasang magkaroon ng kilabot na
mangyayari.
Hanging palay-palay, sa kanluran ng hangin,
lumapit at lifts sa kanya, dala ang prinsesa
malumanay mula sa bundok pababa sa isang
maganda ang field ng mga bulaklak.
Lumapit iisip sa kabuuan ng isang kahangahangang kastilyo at napupunta sa loob. Ang lugar
ay decked out sa tonelada ng kayamanan at
kasinghalaga piraso ng sining.
Nakakarinig She tinig na sabihin sa kanya na ang
palasyo at sa lahat ng mga kahanga-hangang
mga bagay-bagay sa mga ito ay sa kanya.

Siya ay ginagamot sa isang kahanga-hanga na

kapistahan, kumpleto sa isang invisible singing
chorus para sa entertainment.
Ang kanyang asawa-sa-dapat dumating sa kanya
na gabi sa kadiliman ng kanyang kwarto, kaya
hindi siya ay maaaring makita kung ano ang
hitsura niya gusto. Siya ay nagsasabi sa kanya na
siya ay hindi kailanman dapat subukan upang
makita kung ano ang hitsura niya gusto.
Siya ay cool na sa para sa isang habang, ngunit
sa huli ay siya ang makakakuha lonely dahil
lamang lumapit siya sa gabi at dahil walang ibang
tao sa paligid.
Psyche convinces kanyang invisible asawa upang
ipaalam sa kanyang mga kapatid na babae ay
dumating at bisitahin ang kanyang. Atubili siya ay
sumang-ayon at may hanging palay-palay
lumutang ang mga ito down.
Madre-iisip ni makakuha super-nagseselos
tungkol sa kanyang paniwala marangya
pamumuhay. Simulan nila interrogating kanya
tungkol sa kung sino ang kanyang asawa ay.

Sa una, ang pag-iisip ng mga kasinungalingan at

sabi niya ay isang guwapong binata na gumastos
ng lahat ng araw sa pangangaso sa kabundukan.
Hindi nila bilhin ito, kahit na, at panatilihin ang
pumping kanyang para sa impormasyon.
Sa kalaunan, pag-iisip admits na siya ay hindi
kailanman nakita sa kanya at na siya lamang ay
dumating na sa gabi.
Ang nagseselos sisters ipaalala iisip ng hula na
siya ay asawa ng isang halimaw, at kumbinsihin
ang kanilang mga kapatid na babae na siya ay
may upang makita kung ano ang hitsura ng
kanyang asawa gusto.
Sabihan nila sa kanya na maghintay hanggang
siya ay natutulog, at pagkatapos ay tumayo sa
kaniya na may isang lampara at isang kutsilyo
(kung sakaling siya ay isang napakalaking
halimaw).
Gabi na siya ay sumusunod na payo sa kanyang
kapatid na babae 'at nakikita na ang kanyang
asawa ay walang iba kundi Kupido.

Pag-iisip ay matangay na malayo sa

pamamagitan ng kung paano ridiculously
handsome ang kanyang asawa ay. Siya ay kaya
ginulo na siya ay nagbibigay-daan sa isang drop
ng langis mahulog at Burns kanyang balat.
Kupido gumigising at nakikita ang kanyang asawa
na nakatayo doon sa lampara at isang kutsilyo.
Galit na galit, umaagos out siya ng bintana, na
nagsasabi sa pag-iisip na ikaw ay hindi kailanman
siya muli makita siya.
Ang magandang palasyo mawawala at pag-iisip
ay kaliwa nag-iisa.
Ganap nalulumbay, pag-iisip napupunta bumalik
sa kanyang mga kapatid na babae at nagsasabi
sa kanila kung ano ang nangyari.
Tulad ng kung sila ay hindi pa ipinapakita kung
paano ganap na kakila-kilabot na sila ay, ang mga
madre nang pumunta sa bundok pag-iisip na ang
isa sa kanila ay maaaring tumagal ng asawa pagiisip para sa kanilang sarili.

Tumalon sila off ang mga bundok, umaasang

hanging palay-palay upang kumuha ng mga ito
pababa. (Walang ganitong kapalaran.)
Ang nagseselos sisters mahulog sa kanilang mga
pagkamatay sa mga bato sa ibaba.
Samantala, pag-iisip wanders paligid sinusubukan
upang mahanap Kupido.
Siya ay nagtatapos up ng pagpunta sa templo ng
Ceres (aka Demeter), diyosa ng pag-aani. Ang
templo ay isang kabuuang mabagbag, kaya ito
cleans iisip up.
Ceres ay impressed sa debosyon iisip ni.
Pag-iisip nagtatanong para sa ilang mga tulong.
Ceres kagustuhan siya ay maaaring magbigay ng
pag-iisip ng isang kamay, pero ang sabi ng diyosa
siya ay hindi maaaring pumunta laban sa Venus.
Ceres nagpapayo pag-iisip upang pumunta sa
Venus at buong kababaang-loob humingi para sa
kapatawaran.
Pag-iisip ay tumatagal ng payo Ceres 'at
nagtatanghal ng kanyang sarili sa Venus.

Venus pa rin ang loko mad at nagbibigay sa pagiisip ng isang wika paghagupit, na nagsasabi sa
mga batang babae na Kupido ay sinusubukan pa
rin upang makuha mula sa paso na nagbigay sa
kanya ng langis kapag ito dripped sa kanya.
Ang diyosa ng pag-ibig ay nagsasabi sa pag-iisip
na siya ay dapat patunayan ang kanyang sarili na
karapat-dapat na maging palaso ni asawa sa
pamamagitan ng pagkumpleto ng isang gawain.
Pag-iisip ay dadalhin sa isang kamalig na puno ng
trigo, millet, barley, at lahat ng uri ng mga bagaybagay na gumagamit ng Venus sa feed sa kanya
ng kalapati.
Pag-iisip ay iniutos upang maisaayos ang lahat ng
mga iba't ibang uri ng butil - ang trigo sa trigo,
barley sa barley, etc.
Tila medyo marami imposible, at, upang gumawa
ng mga bagay na mas masahol pa trabaho Ang,
Venus order iisip upang makakuha ng ito tapos na
sa pamamagitan ng gabi.
Kupido intervenes, gayunpaman, at binibigyang
inspirasyon ng isang kolonya ng mga langgam na

dumating sa labas ng lupa at tumulong iisip.

(Phew! Kami ay nag-aalala na Rumpelstiltskin
maaaring ipakita up.)
Ang mga langgam makakuha ng trabaho tapos at
nawawala sa ilalim ng lupa.
Venus nagbabalik at nagsasabi iisip na ito ay
hindi mabibilang, dahil hindi nagawa ito iisip sa
pamamagitan ng kanyang sarili.
Ang susunod na araw ang diyosa ng pag-ibig ay
nagbibigay sa kanyang anak na babae-sa-batas
ng ibang gawain. Pag-iisip ay dapat kumulekta ng
mga ginintuang balahibo mula sa likod ng bawat
tupa sa isang kawan na hangs out sa
pamamagitan ng isang ilog.
Habang siya ay tungkol sa cross ng ilog,
bagaman, ang isang ilog diyos ay nagbabala pagiisip na, kung siya sumusubok ito kapag ang araw
ay sumisikat, ang mga lalaking tupa ng tao-hating
pumatay sa kanya.
Ang helpful ilog diyos nagpapayo sa kanya na
maghintay hanggang ang gumagawa ng
katanghalian sun dami ng mga tao na pumunta

palamig ka muna sa lilim; pagkatapos ay ang

lalaking tupa ay hindi gulo sa kanya.
Sumusunod na pag-iisip ng payo sa ilog diyos at
ligtas nangongolekta ng lana.
Venus ay hindi pa rin nasiyahan, bagaman, na
sinasabi muli na pag-iisip ay hindi gawin ito sa
kanyang sarili.
Susunod, pag-ibig na diyosa ng mga order iisip na
bumaba sa mundo ng patay at makita proserpine
(aka Persephone), ang reyna ng underworld at
asawa ng Pluto (aka Hades). Sabi Venus ang
gusto niya pag-iisip upang magdala ng isang
maliit na piraso ng beauty proserpine pabalik sa
isang kahon.
Psyche matapang ulo off upang mahanap ang
underworld, ngunit siya ay talagang sira ang oras
na ito - pagpunta sa lupain ng mga patay ay
lampas na mapanganib.
Paano ay pag-iisip upang makakuha ng
underworld? Ay siya dapat pumatay sa kanyang
sarili? Siya tila sa tingin.

Thankfully, bago pag-iisip na jumps sa bangin,

naririnig niya ang isang boses (Kupido) na
nagsasabi sa kanya kung paano pull ito.
Nagsasabi sa kanya ang boses na kung saan
may isang yungib na humahantong pababa sa
underworld, kung paano para kumbinsihin Charon
(ang mamamangka) na kumuha sa kanya doon at
likod, at kung paano maiwasan Cerberus, ang
mabisyo tatlong-luko aso na nagbabantay sa
underworld.
Pag-iisip ay gumagawa ito sa Pluto at proserpine
Mag palasyo sa lupain ng mga patay at nagsasabi
proserpine na nagnanais Venus upang humiram
ng isang maliit na kagandahan.
Ang isang kahon ay ibinibigay sa pag-iisip, at siya
ay sa kanyang paraan.
Nagbabala ang boses na hindi pag-iisip upang
buksan ang kahon, kahit na ano ang ginagawa
niya, pero pag-iisip ni lang kaya curious at hindi
maaaring makatulong sa kanyang sarili. Ang
batang babae ay bubukas ang box, iniisip na,
kung siya ay nagkaroon ng isang maliit ng mga

beauty sarili, pagkatapos ay gusto siya tunay na

maging karapat-dapat ng Kupido.
Sa kasamaang palad, hindi na beauty sa kahon
sa lahat, at kapag tumatagal ng off-iisip ang takip,
siya ay plunged sa isang malalim na pagtulog,
collapsing sa gitna ng daan.
Kupido, na sa wakas ay nakuhang muli mula sa
kanyang mga paso, lilipad upang makatulong sa
kanyang asawa. Wakes niya ang kanyang up sa
isa sa kanyang mga pana, at siya points out na sa
sandaling muli ang kanyang interes ay nakuha sa
kanya sa gulo.
Kupido ay nagsasabi sa kanya upang kunin ang
kahon sa Venus at upang ipaalam sa kanya ang
bahala sa iba.
Siya ay lilipad papunta sa Jupiter (aka Zeus), at
siya begs ang hari ng mga diyos upang
makatulong sa kanya at pag-iisip.
Jupiter patawag Venus at convinces kanya upang
palamig ka muna tungkol sa buong bagay.
Pagkatapos siya ay nagdudulot ng pag-iisip
hanggang sa Mt. Olympus, ang tahanan ng Diyos,

at nagbibigay sa kanya ng ilang mga ambrosia,

na gumagawa ng batang babae na walang
kamatayan.
Sa wakas, Kupido at Psyche makakuha na
magkasama.
Kupido at Psyche humantong sa pagkakaroon ng
isang anak na babae na magkasama, na
pinangalanang Voluptas (aka Hedone, minsan
isinalin bilang Pleasure).

Plate Tectonics
Moving and Shaking

Science and Space Home

Innovation and Tech

Archaeology
Earth
Health and Human Body
Prehistoric World
Space

Photograph by Rod March, U.S.

Geological Survey

There are a few handfuls of major

plates and dozens of smaller, or
minor, plates. Six of the majors are
named for the continents
embedded within them, such as
the North American, African, and
Antarctic plates. Though smaller in
size, the minors are no less
important when it comes to
shaping the Earth. The tiny Juan
de Fuca plate is largely
responsible for the volcanoes that
dot the Pacific Northwest of the
United States.

The plates make up Earth's outer

shell, called the lithosphere. (This
includes the crust and uppermost
part of the mantle.) Churning
currents in the molten rocks below
propel them along like a jumble of
conveyor belts in disrepair. Most
geologic activity stems from the
interplay where the plates meet or
divide.
The movement of the plates
creates three types of tectonic
boundaries:convergent, where
plates move into one
another; divergent, where plates
move apart; and transform, where

plates move sideways in relation to

each other.
Convergent Boundaries
Where plates serving landmasses
collide, the crust crumples and
buckles into mountain ranges.
India and Asia crashed about 55
million years ago, slowly giving rise
to the Himalaya, the highest
mountain system on Earth. As the
mash-up continues, the mountains
get higher. Mount Everest, the
highest point on Earth, may be a
tiny bit taller tomorrow than it is
today.

These convergent boundaries also

occur where a plate of ocean
dives, in a process
called subduction, under a
landmass. As the overlying plate
lifts up, it also forms mountain
ranges. In addition, the diving plate
melts and is often spewed out in
volcanic eruptions such as those
that formed some of the mountains
in the Andes of South America.
At ocean-ocean convergences,
one plate usually dives beneath
the other, forming
deep trenches like the Mariana
Trench in the North Pacific Ocean,

the deepest point on Earth. These

types of collisions can also lead to
underwater volcanoes that
eventually build up into island arcs
like Japan.
Divergent Boundaries
At divergent boundaries in the
oceans, magma from deep in the
Earth's mantle rises toward the
surface and pushes apart two or
more plates. Mountains and
volcanoes rise along the seam.
The process renews the ocean
floor and widens the giant basins.
A single mid-ocean ridge system

connects the world's oceans,

making the ridge the longest
mountain range in the world.
On land, giant troughs such as the
Great Rift Valley in Africa form
where plates are tugged apart. If
the plates there continue to
diverge, millions of years from now
eastern Africa will split from the
continent to form a new landmass.
A mid-ocean ridge would then
mark the boundary between the
plates.
Transform Boundaries

The San Andreas Fault in

California is an example of
a transform boundary, where two
plates grind past each other along
what are called strike-slip faults.
These boundaries don't produce
spectacular features like
mountains or oceans, but the
halting motion often triggers large
earthquakes, such as the 1906
one that devastated San
Francisco.

The epicenter, epicentre /

psntr/ or epicentrum[1] is

the point on the Earth's

surface that is directly above
the hypocentre or focus, the
point where an earthquake or
underground explosion
originates. The word derives
from the New
Latin noun epicentrum,[2] th
elatinisation of the ancient
Greek adjective
(epikentros), "occupying a

cardinal point, situated on a

centre",[3] from (epi) "on,
upon, at"[4] and
(kentron) "centre".[5] The term
was coined by the
Irish seismologist Robert
Mallet.[6]

The epicentre is directly above

theearthquake's hypocentre (focus
).

In the case of earthquakes,

the epicenter is directly above
the point where
the fault begins to rupture,
and in most cases, it is the
area of greatest damage.
However, in larger events, the
length of the fault rupture is
much longer, and damage
can be spread across the
rupture zone. For example, in

the magnitude 7.9, 2002

Denali earthquake in Alaska,
the epicenter was at the
western end of the rupture,
but the greatest damage
occurred about 330 km away
at the eastern end of the
rupture zone.[7]
Epicentral distance[edit]

During an earthquake seismic

waves propagate spherically

out from the

hypocenter. Seismic
shadowing occurs on the
opposite side of the Earth
from the earthquake epicenter
because the liquid outer
core refracts the longitudinal
or compressional (P-waves)
while it absorbs
thetransverse or shear waves
(S-waves). Outside of the

seismic shadow zone both

types of wave can be
detected but, due to their
different velocities and paths
through the Earth, they arrive
at different times. By
measuring the time difference
on any seismograph as well
as the distance on a traveltime graph at which the Pwave and S-wave have the

same separation, geologists

can calculate the distance to
the earthquake's epicenter.
This distance is called
the epicentral distance,
commonly measured
in (degrees) and denoted as
(delta) in seismology.
Once epicentral distances
have been calculated from at
least three seismographic

measuring stations, it is a
simple matter to find out
where the epicenter was
located using trilateration.
Epicentral distance is also
used in calculating seismic
magnitudes developed by
Richter and Gutenberg.[8][9]
Misuse of the term[edit]

Epicenter or epicentre is
frequently misused when not

employed in the context of

seismology. It is often utilized
"as a pompous alternative to
'centre'. For example, 'Travel
is restricted in the Chinese
province thought to be the
epicentre of the SARS
outbreak'."[10][11]Garner's
Modern American
Usage gives several
examples of such

misuse. Garner also refers to

a William Safire piece in
which Safire quotes a
geophysicist as attributing the
misuse of the term to
"spurious erudition on the part
of writers combined with
scientific illiteracy on the part
of copy editors". However,
Garner notes that these
misusages may be

metaphorical uses of the term

to describe "focal points of
unstable and potentially
destructive environments."[12]

A stunningly beautiful girl, pag-iisip, ay

ipinanganak pagkatapos ng dalawang mas
lumang kapatid na babae. Mga tao sa buong
lupain sambahin ang kanyang kagandahan kaya
malalim na sila kalimutan ang tungkol sa mga
diyosa Venus. Venus nagiging galit na ang
kanyang Templo ay bumabagsak sa pagkaguho,
kaya plano sa pagtatayo niya sa pagkaguho iisip.
Nagtuturo siya ng kanyang anak na lalaki, Kupido,
sa lagusan ng batang babae na may isang arrow
at gumawa ng kanyang umibig sa mga pinakahamak, napakapangit buhay ng tao. Ngunit kapag
nakikita Kupido iisip sa kanyang nagliliwanag sa
kaluwalhatian, shoots niya ang kanyang sarili sa
ang mga arrow sa halip.

Samantala, pag-iisip at ang kanyang pamilya na

maging nag-aalala na hindi siya ay mahanap ang
isang asawa, para sa kahit lalaki humanga sa
kanyang kagandahan, ang mga ito ay mukhang
na nilalaman na mag-asawa ng ibang tao lagi.
Ama-iisip ni dumadalangin sa Apollo ng tulong, at
nagtuturo sa kanya Apollo upang pumunta sa
tuktok ng isang burol, kung saan siya ay
magpakasal hindi isang tao kundi isang ahas.
Psyche matapang na sumusunod sa mga
tagubilin at bumaba tulog sa burol. Kapag siya
wakes up, nadiskubre siya ng isang kaakit-akit na
mansion. Pagpunta sa loob, siya relaxes at enjoys
fine food at maluho paggamot. Sa gabi, sa dilim,
siya ay nakakatugon at bumaba sa pag-ibig sa
kanyang asawa.
Siya ang buhay maligaya sa kanya, hindi
kailanman nakikita sa kanya, hanggang isang
araw siya ay nagsasabi sa kanya na ang kanyang
kapatid na babae ay umiiyak para sa kanya. Begs

siya na makita ang mga ito, ngunit ang kanyang

asawa ang sumagot na hindi ito ay magiging
matalino na gawin ito. Psyche insists na bisitahin
sila, at kapag ang kanilang gawin, sila ay lubhang
nagseselos ng maganda mansion pag-iisip at
malusog na tirahan. Pagbatayan nila na pag-iisip
ay hindi kailanman makikita ang kanyang asawa,
at sila ay kumbinsihin sa kanya na siya ay dapat
lumabas nang panakaw ng isang hitsura. Nalilito
at conflicted, pag-iisip ay lumiliko sa isang
lampara sa isang gabi ng kanyang asawa ay
nakatapat sa kanya.
Kapag nakikita niya ang mga magagandang
Kupido tulog sa kanyang kama, siya ay umiiyak
para sa kanyang kakulangan ng
pananampalataya. Kupido pinupukaw at
katotohanan sa kanya dahil ibig ay hindi maaaring
mabuhay kung walang tiwala. Kupido ay nagbalik
sa kanyang ina, Venus, na muli ay nagpasiya na
gumawa ng batas ng paghihiganti sa beautiful girl.

Pag-iisip, samantala, mga paglalakbay sa buong

lupain upang mahanap Kupido. Nagpasya siyang
pumunta sa Venus ang kanyang sarili sa isang
panawagan para sa pag-ibig at kapatawaran, at
kapag siya sa wakas nakikita Venus, ang dakilang
diyosa tumatawa nang malakas. Venus ay
nagpapakita ng kanyang isang magbunton ng
mga buto at nagsasabi sa kanya na siya ay dapat
ayusin ang mga ito sa lahat sa oras ng isa gabi
kung siya ay nais na makita muli Kupido. Ang
gawain na ito ay imposible para sa isang tao na
nag-iisa, ngunit langgam nakakalungkot pag-iisip
at ayusin ang mga buto para sa kanya. Shocked,
Venus pagkatapos order iisip sa pagtulog sa
malamig na lupa at kumain lamang ng isang
piraso ng tinapay para sa hapunan. Madaling
Ngunit Psyche survives gabi. Panghuli, Venus
utos sa kanya upang makuha ang isang
ginintuang balahibo mula sa ilog. Siya halos
drowns kanyang sarili sa ilog dahil sa kanyang
kalungkutan, ngunit ang isang tambo ang
nagsasalita sa kanya at nagpapahiwatig na
mangolekta siya ng mga gintong piraso ng

balahibo mula sa mahirap briar na nakakakuha ng

mga ito. Sumusunod na pag-iisip sa mga
tagubiling ito at nagbalik ng isang malaki na dami
sa Venus. Ang namangha diyosa, pa rin sa mga
ito, ngayon orders iisip upang punan ang isang
prasko mula sa bibig ng River Styx. Kapag
umabot iisip ang ulo ng ilog, siya realizes na ang
gawain na ito tila imposible dahil ang mga bato ay
kaya mapanganib. Sa panahong ito, isang agila
tumutulong sa kanyang at pinunan ang prasko.
Venus hindi pa rin bigyan in. Siya hamon pag-iisip
upang pumunta sa underworld at Persephone
ilagay ang ilan sa kanyang kagandahan sa isang
kahon. Miraculously, pag-iisip succeeds.
Sa kanyang daan patungo sa pagbibigay ng mga
kahon upang Venus, siya ay nagiging curious,
bubukas ang kahon, at agad na bumaba tulog.
Samantala, mukhang Kupido para pag-iisip at
hahanap sa kanya sa pagtulog. Pinupukaw niya
sa kanya, ay inilalagay ang mga natutulog sa
likod ng kahon ng spell, at tumatagal ng kanyang
sa Zeus upang humiling ng kanyang imortalidad.

Zeus pamigay ang kahilingan at gumagawa ng

pag-iisip ng isang diyosa immortal. Siya at ang
Kupido ay may-asawa. Sinusuportahan na
ngayon ng Venus ang kasal dahil ang kanyang
anak na lalaki ay asawa ng isang diyosa-at dahil
pag-iisip ay hindi na makaabala sa mga tao sa
lupa mula sa Venus.
Pagsusuri
Ang kuwento na ito ay nakasentro sa
kapangyarihan ng tunay na pagmamahal. Pagiisip kang alinlangan na pag-ibig, pakiramdam na
dapat niyang makita Kupido sa laman. Siya
mamaya tumutubos sa kanyang sarili maraming
beses sa loob nang nagpapatunay niya ang
kanyang mga pangako, overcoming ang lahat ng
mga balakid sa kanyang paraan. Pasimbolo, pagibig (Kupido) at kaluluwa ("pag-iisip" ay ang
salitang Griyego para sa mga kaluluwa) ay pagaari sama-sama sa isang hindi union. Kapag
nakikita Kupido pag-iisip, ang kaluluwa sa

kanyang kagandahan, ang gusto niya agad-agad

na sumali sa kanya. Kahit paano, ang
kagandahan ay hinahangaan ng mga tao ngunit
hindi humahantong sa mga uri ng pag-ibig na
eventuates sa isang panukala sa kasal. Ngunit
Kupido ay magagawang ganap na pahalagahan
ang kagandahan pag-iisip ni.
Ang masayang pagtatapos, sa Venus, pag-iisip, at
Kupido ang lahat ng pag-abot sa isang positibong
resolution, naglalarawan na kapag ang pag-ibig
ay dalisay, ang lahat ng panganganak,
kalungkutan, at mga hamon ay align upang
matiyak na ang pag-ibig ay maisasakatuparan.
Kahit likas na katangian, pati na ang langgam at
agila ipakita, suportahan tunay na pagmamahal.
Sa lahat ng mga kuwento sa Griyego mitolohiya,
mas malinaw na nagpapakita na wala na ang
tunay na pag-ibig ay umiiral pa sa kuwentong ito.
Bukod dito, pag-iisip ay nagpapakita na ang tunay
na pagmamahal ay dapat ipinagtanggol at
sinusuportahan ang kahit na ano ang gastos. Ito
bahagi ng alamat ay maganda retold sa

pamamagitan ng modernong mga may-akda CS

Lewis sa ilalim ng pamagat Hanggang Nakarating
na kami Mukha.
Pag-iisip ay nananatiling isang di-karaniwang
halimbawa ng isang babae na character na gawa
tulad ng isang lalaki na bayani. Kahit ibang mga
babae na character (tulad ng Artemis) gumanap
ayon sa kaugalian male gawain, wala kaya
matapang ay gumaganap bilang isang bayani
maaaring: overcoming tila imposibleng balakid,
labanan upang manalo ng tunay na pagmamahal,
ang pagkamit ng isang katayuan na ito ay higit
pantao.
Mahalaga, pag-iisip ay isang bihirang nilalang na
nagsisimula bilang isang mortal at nagtatapos
bilang diyos. Ang kanyang natatanging posisyon
iaangat mga katanungan tungkol sa
espiritwalidad. Ay ang kaluluwa ng maayos ang
isang bagay ng lupa o ng isang bagay ng langit?
Paano gumagana ang pagiging pagbabagong-

iisip kapag siya ay nagiging walang kamatayan?

Ay may isang bagay tungkol sa pag-iisip na iyon
ay higit pa sa mga tao mula sa simula, at bakit
siya ay manalo ang pansin ng Kupido sa unang
lugar?
Ang kuwento ay patuloy na galugarin ang mga
pagkakaiba sa pagitan ng tao at Diyos, bilang
Venus ay mapait nagseselos ng isang mortal na
kumukuha ng iba pang mga mortal ang layo mula
sa kanya, isang diyosa. Sa lupa, ang kaluluwa,
ang korte ng pag-iisip, ay amazingly maganda
pero mukha malaking pagsubok. Order ay ibinalik
kapag umabot sa mga kaluluwa ng mga langit.
Ang pag-asam ng sariling kaluluwa ng isa mga
sumusunod na path na ito ay maaaring maging
lubhang kaakit-akit.
Tila na ang desisyon ay nasa sa Zeus.
Kailangang isang kaluluwa kumita lugar nito (may
tulong) sa kaharian ng diyos? Doon ay dapat na
isang tagataguyod, isa pang diyos, na dapat

dalhin ang kaso sa Zeus? Kahit na tulad ng mga

katanungan ay kaliwa bukas, tila malinaw na pagiisip ni pagpapasiya, tapang, at paniniwala sa
tunay na pagmamahal matulungan ang kanyang
makamit banal status.
Ipinapakita rin ito gawa-gawa ng ilan sa mga
interlocking storylines ng myths. Pag-iisip ay
bumisita Persephone sa underworld (ito ay dapat
na taglamig). Box Persephone ni nagpapaalala sa
atin Pandora, lalo na dahil siya ay kaya kakaiba
upang buksan ito. Kami ay makita ang River Styx
muli, masyadong, na hindi banggitin Zeus at
Venus. Ang interconnected kalikasan ng kwento
ay itataas ang mga katanungan tungkol sa
pagkakasunud-sunod: bukod sa Paglikha ng
Earth, ito ay hindi maliwanag kung ano ang
maaaring ang pagkakasunud-sunod, at kung aling
mga kuwento ang mangyayari bago isa. Subalit
ang bilang ng mga character at lugar magsanib,
ang myths ipakita ang kanilang sarili na maging
hindi lamang intertextual sa bawat isa ngunit

pinag rin sa kanilang mga paglalarawan ng isang

mundo kung saan ang lahat ng mga character at
mga kuwento umiiral

High School Earth Science/Continental Drift

Inside Earth Seafloor

Spreading
This is the latest reviewed
version, checked on 9 April 2015.(+)

Contents
[hide]

1
Lesson Objectives


2
The Continental Drift Idea

3
Evidence for Continental Drift

4
Magnetic Polarity Evidence

5
Lesson Summary

Review Questions

7
Vocabulary

8
Points to Consider
An important piece of plate tectonic theory is the continental drift idea. This was developed in the
early part of the 20th century, mostly by a single scientist, Alfred Wegener. His hypothesis states that
continents move around on Earth's surface and that they were once joined together as a single
supercontinent (Figure 6.5). Wegener's idea eventually helped to form the theory of plate tectonics,
but while Wegener was alive, scientists did not believe that the continents could move.

Figure 6.5: The continents fit

together like pieces of a puzzle.
This is how they looked 250
million years ago.
Lesson Objectives[edit]

Be able to explain the continental drift hypothesis.

Describe the evidence Wegener used to support his continental drift idea.

Describe how the north magnetic pole appeared to move, and how that is evidence for
continental drift.

The Continental Drift Idea[edit]

Find a map of the continents and cut each one out. Better yet, use a map where the edges of the
continents show the continental shelf. In this case, your continent puzzle piece includes all of the
continental crust for that continent and reflects the true size and shape of the continent. Can you fit
the pieces together? The easiest link is between the eastern Americas and western Africa and
Europe, but the rest can fit together too!
Alfred Wegener, an early 20th century German meteorologist believed that the continents could fit
together. He proposed that the continents were not stationary but that they had moved during the
planet's history. He suggested that at one time, all of the continents had been united into a single
supercontinent. He named the supercontinent Pangaea, meaning entire earth in ancient Greek.
Wegener further suggested that Pangaea broke up long ago and that the continents then moved to
their current positions. He called his hypothesis continental drift.

Evidence for Continental Drift[edit]

Besides the fit of the continents, Wegener and his supporters collected a great deal of evidence for
the continental drift hypothesis. Wegener found that this evidence was best explained if the
continents had at one time been joined together.
Wegener discovered that identical rocks could be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. These
rocks were the same type and the same age. Wegener understood that the rocks had formed sideby-side and that the land has since moved apart. Wegener also matched up mountain ranges that
had the same rock types, structures, and ages, but that are now on opposite sides of the Atlantic
Ocean. The Appalachians of the eastern United States and Canada, for example, are just like
mountain ranges in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway. Wegener concluded that
they formed as a single mountain range that was separated as the continents drifted.
Wegener also found evidence from ancient fossils (Figure 6.6). He found fossils of the same species
of extinct plants and animals in rocks of the same age, but on continents that are now widely
separated. Wegener suggested that the continents could not have been in their current positions
because the organisms would not have been able to travel across the oceans. For example, fossils
of the seed fern Glossopteris are found across all of the southern continents. But the plants' seeds
were too heavy to be carried across the ocean by wind. Mesosaurus fossils are found in South
America and South Africa, but the reptile could only swim in fresh
water. Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were reptiles that lived on land. Both of these animals were
unable to swim, let alone swim across wide seas! Their fossils have been found across South
America, Africa, India and Antarctica. Wegener proposed that the organisms had lived side by side,
but that the lands had moved apart after they were dead and fossilized.

Figure 6.6: Wegener used fossil

evidence to support his
continental drift hypothesis. The
fossils of these organisms are
found on lands that are now far
apart. Wegener suggested that
when the organisms were alive,
the lands were joined and the

organisms were living side-byside.

Wegener also looked at evidence from ancient glaciers. Large glaciers are most commonly found in
frigid climates, usually in the far northern and southern latitudes. Using the distribution of grooves
and rock deposits left by ancient glaciers on many different continents, Wegener traced the glaciers
back to where they must have started. He discovered that if the continents were in their current
positions, the glaciers would have formed in the middle of the ocean very close to the equator.
Wegener knew that this was impossible! However, if the continents had moved, the glaciers would
have been centered over the southern land mass much closer to the South Pole.
Wegener also found evidence for his hypothesis from warm climate zones. Coral reefs and the
swamps that lead to the formation of coal are now found only in tropical and subtropical
environments. But Wegener discovered ancient coal seams and coral reefs in parts of the continents
that were much too cold today. The coral reef fossils and coal had drifted to new locations since the
coal and coral formed.
Although Wegener's evidence was sound, most geologists at the time rejected his hypothesis of
continental drift. These scientists argued that there was no way to explain howsolid continents could
plow through solid oceanic crust. At the time, scientists did not understand how solid material could
move. Wegener's idea was nearly forgotten until technological advances presented puzzling new
information and gave scientists the tools to develop a mechanism for Wegeners drifting continents.

Magnetic Polarity Evidence[edit]

The puzzling new evidence came from studying Earth's magnetic field and how it has changed. If
you have ever been hiking or camping, you may have used a compass to help you find your way. A
compass uses the Earths magnetic field to locate the magnetic North Pole. Earth's magnetic
field is like a bar magnet with the ends of the bar sticking out at each pole (Figure 6.7). Currently,
the field's north and south magnetic poles are very near to the Earth's north and south geographic
poles.
Some iron-bearing minerals, like tiny magnetite crystals in igneous rocks, point to the north
magnetic pole as they crystallize from magma. These little magnets record both the strength and
direction of the Earth's magnetic field. The direction is known as the field's magnetic polarity. In the
1950s, scientists began using magnetometers to look at the magnetic properties of rocks in many
locations.

Figure 6.7: Earth's magnetic field

is like a magnet with its north pole
near the geographic north pole
and the south pole near the
geographic south pole.
Geologists noted that magnetite crystals in fresh volcanic rocks pointed to the current magnetic north
pole. This happened no matter where the rocks were located, whether they were on different
continents or in different locations on the same continent. But for older volcanic rocks, this was not
true. Rocks that were the same age and were located on the same continent pointed to the same
point, but that point was not the current north magnetic pole. Moving back in time, rocks on the same
continent that were the same age pointed at the same point. But these rocks did not point to the
same point as the rocks of different ages or the current magnetic pole. In other words, although the
magnetite crystals were pointing to the magnetic north pole, the location of the pole seemed to
wander. For example, 400 million year old lava flows in North America indicated that the north
magnetic pole was located in the western Pacific Ocean, but 250 million year old lava flows indicated
a pole in Asia, and 100 million year old lava flows had a pole in northern Asia. Scientists were
amazed to find that the north magnetic pole changed location through time!

There were three possible explanations for this puzzling phenomenon: (1) the continent remained
fixed and the north magnetic pole moved (2) the north magnetic pole stood still and the continent
moved (3) both the continent and the north pole moved.
The situation got stranger when scientists looked at where magnetite crystals pointed for rocks of the
same age but on different continents. They found these rocks pointed to different magnetic north
poles! For example, 400 million years ago the European north pole was different from the North
American north pole at that same time. At 250 million years, the north poles were also different for
the two continents. The scientists again looked at the three possible explanations. If the correct
explanation was that the continents had remained fixed while the north magnetic pole moved, then
there had to be two separate north poles. Since there is only one north pole today, they decided that
the best explanation had to involve only one north magnetic pole. This meant that the second
explanation must be correct, that the north magnetic pole had remained fixed but that the continents
had moved.
To test this, geologists fitted the continents together as Wegener had done. They discovered that
there had indeed been only one magnetic north pole but that the continents had drifted. They
renamed the phenomenon of the magnetic pole that seemed to move but actually did not apparent
polar wander. This evidence for continental drift gave geologists renewed interest in understanding
how continents could move about on the planet's surface. And we know that the magnetic pole
wanders, too, so the correct explanation was that both the continents and the magnetic poles move.

Lesson Summary[edit]

In the early part of the 20th century, scientists began to put together evidence that the
continents could move around on Earth's surface.

The evidence for continental drift included the fit of the continents; the distribution of ancient
fossils, rocks, and mountain ranges; and the locations of ancient climatic zones.

Although the evidence was extremely strong, scientists could not think of a mechanism that
could drive solid continents to move around on the solid earth and most rejected the idea.

Continental drift would resurface after World War II when a mechanism was discovered.

Review Questions[edit]
1. Why can paper cutouts of the continents including the continental margins be pieced
together to form a single whole?
2. How can the locations where ancient fossils are found be used as evidence for continental
drift?
3. To show that mountain ranges on opposite sides of the Atlantic formed as two parts of the
same range and were once joined, what would you look for?

4. What are the three possible explanations for apparent polar wander when the rocks are all
on one continent? If the rocks are on more than one continent, which explanation is the only
one likely to be true and why?
5. In the face of so much evidence in support of continental drift, how could scientists reject the
idea?
6. Look at a world map. Besides the coast of west Africa and eastern South America, what are
some other regions of the world that look as they could be closely fit together?

Vocabulary[edit]
apparent polar wander
The path on the globe showing where the magnetic pole appeared to move over time.
continental drift
The hypothesis developed in the early 20th century that states that the continents move
about on the surface.
magnetite
A magnetic mineral that takes on the polarity of the Earths magnetic field at the time it forms.
magnetic field
The region around a magnet that is susceptible to the magnetic force. Earth's magnetic field
is like a magnet.
magnetic polarity
The direction of the Earth's magnetic field, north is normal or south is reversed.
magnetometer
An instrument that measures the magnetic field intensity.

Vocabulary[edit]

amplitude
The height of a wave from
a center line to the top of

the crest (or to the bottom

of the trough).
body waves
A type of seismic wave that
travels through the body of
a planet. The two types are
primary waves and
secondary waves.
crest
The highest point of a
wave.

earthquake
Ground shaking caused by
the release of energy
stored in rocks.
elastic rebound theory
The theory of how
earthquakes are generated.
Elastic rebound theory
states that stresses cause
strain to build up in rocks
until they can no longer

bend elastically and they

break, causing an
earthquake.
epicenter
The point on the earth's
surface that lies above an
earthquake's focus.
focus
The point where rocks
rupture during an
earthquake.

Love waves
These surface waves have
a side-to-side motion, much
like a slithering snake.
primary waves (Pwaves)
P-waves are body waves
that are the first to arrive at
a seismometer because
they are the fastest. Pwaves are longitudinal

waves that travel through

solids, liquids, and gases.
Rayleigh waves
These surface waves have
a rolling motion.
secondary
waves (Swaves)
S-waves are body waves
that are the second to
arrive at a seismometer. S-

waves are transverse

waves that can only move
through solids.
seismic waves
Seismic waves transport
the energy released during
an earthquake. The two
main types are body waves
and surface waves.
seismology

The study of seismic waves

including earthquakes and
the earth's interior.
surface
waves
Surface waves are seismic
waves that travel along the
ground surface. The two
types are Love waves and
Rayleigh waves. Surface

waves do the most damage

after an earthquake.
trough
The lowest point of a wave.
tsunami
A deadly set of waves that
are ordinarily caused by an
undersea earthquakes or
another shock in which
large amounts of seawater
are displaced. Tsunamis

rise high on a beach and

can travel far inland,
causing death and
destruction as they go.
waveleng
th
The distance from crest to
crest or trough to trough
between two waves

High School Earth Science/Theory of Plate

Tectonics

Seafloor
Spreading Earthquakes
This is the latest reviewed
version, checked on 24
February 2015.(+)

Contents
[hide]

1
Lesson Objectives

2
Earth's Tectonic Plates

3
How Plates Move

Plate Boundaries
o

4.1 Divergent Plate Boundaries

4.2 Convergent Plate Boundarie

4.3 Transform Plate Boundaries

5
Earth's Changing Surface

Intraplate Activity

7
Lesson Summary

8
Review Questions

9
Vocabulary


1
0 Points to Consider

Wegener's continental drift

hypothesis had a great deal
of evidence in its favor but it
was largely abandoned
because his theory on how
the continents moved was
disproved. In the meantime,

scientists developed
explanations to explain the
locations of fossils on widely
different continents (land
bridges) and the similarity of
rock sequences across
oceans (geosynclines), which
were becoming more and
more cumbersome. When
seafloor spreading came
along, scientists recognized

that the mechanism to explain

drifting continents had been
found. Like the scientists did
before us, we are now ready
to merge the ideas of
continental drift and seafloor
spreading into a new allencompassing idea: the
theory of plate tectonics.
Lesson Objectives

 Describe what a plate is

and how scientists can
recognize its edges.
Explain how mantle
convection moves
lithospheric plates.
Describe the three types of
plate boundaries and
whether they are prone to
earthquakes and volcanoes.

 Describe how plate

tectonics processes lead to
changes in Earth's surface
features.
Earth's Tectonic Plates

Now you know that seafloor

and continents move around
on Earth's surface. But what
is it that is actually moving? In
other words, what is the
"plate" in plate tectonics? This

question was also answered

due to war, in this case the
Cold War.
Although seismographs had
been around for decades,
during the 1950s and
especially in the early 1960s,
scientists set up seismograph
networks to see if enemy
nations were testing atomic
bombs. Seismographs record

seismic waves. Modern

seismographs are sensitive
enough to detect nuclear
explosions.
While watching for enemy
atom bomb tests, the
seismographs were also
recording all of the
earthquakes that were taking
place around the planet.
These seismic records could

be used to locate an
earthquake's epicenter, the
point on Earth's surface
directly above the place
where the earthquake occurs.
Earthquakes are associated
with large cracks in the
ground, known as faults.
Rocks on opposite sides of a
fault move in opposite
directions.

Earthquakes are not spread

evenly around the planet, but
are found mostly in certain
regions. In the oceans,
earthquakes are found along
mid-ocean ridges and in and
around deep sea trenches.
Earthquakes are extremely
common all around the
Pacific Ocean basin and often
occur near volcanoes. The

intensity of earthquakes and

volcanic eruptions around the
Pacific led scientists to name
this region the Pacific Ring of
Fire (Figure 6.12).
Earthquakes are also
common in the world's
highest mountains, the
Himalaya Mountains of Asia,
and across the Mediterranean
region.

Figure 6.12: The bold pink swatch

outlines the volcanoes and active
earthquake areas found around
the Pacific Ocean basin, which is
called the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Scientists noticed that the

earthquake epicenters were
located along the mid-ocean

ridges, trenches and large

faults that mark the edges of
large slabs of Earth's
lithosphere (Figure 6.13).
They named these large
slabs of lithosphere plates.
The movements of the plates
were then termed plate
tectonics. A single plate can
be made of all oceanic
lithosphere or all continental

lithosphere, but nearly all

plates are made of a
combination of both.

Figure 6.13: A map of earthquake

epicenters shows that
earthquakes are found primarily in
lines that run up the edges of
some continents, through the

centers of some oceans, and in

patches in some land areas.

The lithosphere is divided into

a dozen major and several
minor plates. The plates'
edges can be drawn by
connecting the dots that are
earthquake epicenters.
Scientists have named each
of the plates and have
determined the direction that
each is moving (Figure 6.14).

Plates move around the

Earth's surface at a rate of a
few centimeters a year, about
the same rate fingernails
grow.

Figure 6.14: The lithospheric

plates and their names. The
arrows show whether the plates
are moving apart, moving
together, or sliding past each
other.
How Plates Move

We know that seafloor

spreading moves the
lithospheric plates around on
Earth's surface but what
drives seafloor spreading?
The answer is in lesson one

of this chapter: mantle

convection. At this point it
would help to think of a
convection cell as a rectangle
or oval. Each side of the
rectangle is a limb of the cell.
The convection cell is located
in the mantle. The base is
deep in the mantle and the
top is near the crust. There is
a limb of mantle material

moving on one side of the

rectangle, one limb moving
horizontally across the top of
the rectangle, one limb
moving downward on the
other side of the rectangle,
and the final limb moving
horizontally to where the
material begins to move
upward again.

Now picture two convection

cells side-by-side in the
mantle. The rising limbs of
material from the two
adjacent cells reach the base
of the crust at the mid-ocean
ridge. Some of the hot
magma crystallizes and
creates new ocean crust. This
seafloor moves off the axis of
the mid-ocean ridge in both

directions when still newer

seafloor erupts. The oceanic
plate moves outward due to
the eruption of new oceanic
crust at the mid-ocean ridge.
Beneath the moving crust is
the laterally moving top limb
of the mantle convection
cells. Each convection cell is
moving seafloor away from
the ridge in opposite

directions. This horizontal

mantle flow moves with the
crust across the ocean basin
and away from the ridge. As
the material moves
horizontally, the seafloor
thickens and both the new
crust and the mantle beneath
it cool. Where the limbs of the
convection cells plunge down
into the deeper mantle,

oceanic crust is dragged into

the mantle as well. This takes
place at the deep sea
trenches. As the crust dives
into the mantle its weight
drags along the rest of the
plate and pulls it downward.
The last limbs of the
convection cells flow along
the core. The material is
heated and so is ready to rise

again when it reaches the

rising limb of the convection
cell. As you can see, each
convection cell is found
beneath a different
lithospheric plate and is
responsible for the movement
of that plate.
Plate Boundaries

Back at the planet's surface,

the edges where two plates

meet are known as plate

boundaries. Most geologic
activity, including volcanoes,
earthquakes, and mountain
building, takes place at plate
boundaries where two
enormous pieces of solid
lithosphere interact.
Think about two cars moving
around a parking lot. In what
three ways can those cars

move relative to each other?

They can move away from
each other, they can move
toward each other, or they
can slide past each other.
These three types of relative
motion also define the three
types of plate boundaries:
Divergent plate
boundaries: the two plates
move away from each other.

 Convergent plate
boundaries: the two plates
move towards each other.
Transform plate
boundaries: the two plates
slip past each other.
What happens at plate
boundaries depends on which
direction the two plates are
moving relative to each other.
It also depends on whether

the lithosphere on the two

sides of the plate boundary is
oceanic crust, continental
crust, or one piece of each
type. The type of plate
boundary and the type of
crust found on each side of
the boundary determines
what sort of geologic activity
will be found there:

earthquakes, volcanoes, or
mountain building.
Divergent Plate Boundaries

Plates move apart, or diverge,

at mid-ocean ridges where
seafloor spreading forms new
oceanic lithosphere. At these
mid-ocean ridges, lava rises,
erupts, and cools. Magma
cools more slowly beneath
the lava mostly forming the

igneous intrusive rock gabbro.

The entire ridge system, then,
is igneous. Earthquakes are
also common at mid-ocean
ridges since the movement of
magma and oceanic crust
result in crustal shaking.
Although the vast majority of
mid-ocean ridges are located
deep below the sea, we can
see where the Mid-Atlantic

Ridge surfaces at the volcanic

island of Iceland (Figure
6.15).

Figure 6.15: The Leif the Lucky

Bridge straddles the Mid-Atlantic
ridge separating the North
American and Eurasian plates on
Iceland.

Figure 6.16: The Arabian, Indian,

and African plates are rifting apart,
forming the Great Rift Valley in
Africa. The Dead Sea fills the rift
with seawater.

Although it is uncommon, a
divergent plate boundary can
also occur within a continent.

This is called continental

rifting(Figure 6.16). Magma
rises beneath the continent,
causing it to thin, break, and
ultimately split up. As the
continental crust breaks
apart, oceanic crust erupts in
the void. This is how the
Atlantic Ocean formed when
Pangaea broke up. The East
African Rift is currently

splitting eastern Africa away

from the African continent.
Convergent Plate Boundaries

Figure 6.18: This digital elevation

model topographic map shows the
trench lining the western margin of
South America where the Nazca
plate is subducting beneath the
South American plate. The
resulting Andes Mountains line
western South America and are
seen as brown and red uplands in
this image.

What happens when two

plates converge depends on
the types of crust that are
colliding. Convergence can
take place between two slabs

of continental lithosphere, two

slabs of oceanic lithosphere,
or between one continental
and one oceanic slab. Most
often, when two plates collide,
one or both are destroyed.
When oceanic crust
converges with continental
crust, the denser oceanic
plate plunges beneath the
continental plate. This

process occurs at the oceanic

trenches and is
called subduction (Figure
6.17). The entire region is
known as a subduction
zone. Subduction zones have
a lot of intense earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions. The
subducting plate causes
melting in the mantle. The
magma rises and erupts,

creating volcanoes. These

volcanoes are found in a line
above the subducting plate.
The volcanoes are known as
a continental arc. The
movement of crust and
magma causes earthquakes.
The Andes Mountains, which
line the western edge of
South America, are a
continental arc. The

volcanoes are the result of

the Nazca plate subducting
beneath the South American
plate (Figure 6.18).

Figure 6.17: Subduction of an

oceanic plate beneath a
continental plate forms a line of
volcanoes known as a continental
arc and causes earthquakes.

The volcanoes of
northeastern California
Lassen Peak, Mount Shasta,
and Medicine Lake volcano
along with the rest of the
Cascade Mountains of the
Pacific Northwest, are the
result of subduction of the
Juan de Fuca plate beneath
the North American plate
(Figure 6.19). Mount St.

Helens, which erupted

explosively on May 18, 1980,
is the most famous and
currently the most active of
the Cascades volcanoes.

Figure 6.19: The Cascade

Mountains of the Pacific
Northwest are formed by the

subduction of the Juan de Fuca

plate beneath the North American
plate. The Juan de Fuca plate
forms near the shoreline at the
Juan de Fuca ridge.

Sometimes the magma does

not rise all the way through
the continental crust beneath
a volcanic arc. This usually
happens if the magma is rich
in silica. These viscous
magmas form large areas of
intrusive igneous rock,

called batholiths, which may

someday be uplifted to form a
mountain range. The Sierra
Nevada batholith cooled
beneath a volcanic arc
roughly 200 million years ago
(Figure 6.20). Similar
batholiths are likely forming
beneath the Andes and
Cascades today.

Figure 6.20: The granite batholith

of the Sierra Nevada Mountain
range is well exposed here at
Mount Whitney, the highest
mountain in the range at 14,505
feet (4,421 meters) and the
second highest mountain in North
America.

Figure 6.21: A convergent plate

boundary subduction zone
between two plates of oceanic
lithosphere. Melting of the
subducting plate causes volcanic
activity and earthquakes.

When two oceanic plates

converge, the older, denser
plate will sink beneath the
other plate and plunge into
the mantle. As the plate is

pushed deeper into the

mantle, it melts, which forms
magma. As the magma rises
it forms volcanoes in a line
known as an island arc,
which is a line of volcanic
islands (Figure 6.21).
The Japanese, Indonesian,
and Philippine islands are
examples of island arc
volcanoes. The volcanic

islands are set off from the

mainland in an arc shape as
seen in this satellite image of
Japan (Figure 6.22).

Figure 6.22: Japan is an island

arc composed of volcanoes off the
Asian mainland, as seen in this
satellite image.

Figure 6.23: When two plates of

continental crust collide, the
material pushes upward forming a
high mountain range. The
remnants of subducted oceanic
crust remain beneath the
continental convergence zone.

When two continental plates

collide, they are too thick to
subduct. Just like if you put
your hands on two sides of a

sheet of paper and bring your

hands together, the material
has nowhere to go but up
(Figure 6.23)! Some of the
world's largest mountains
ranges are created at
continent-continent
convergent plate boundaries.
In these locations, the crust is
too thick for magma to
penetrate so there are no

volcanoes, but there may be

magma. Metamorphic rocks
are common due to the stress
the continental crust
experiences. As you might
think, with enormous slabs of
crust smashing together,
continent-continent collisions
bring on numerous
earthquakes.

The world's highest

mountains, the Himalayas,
are being created by a
collision between the Indian
and Eurasian plates (Figure
6.24). The Appalachian
Mountains are the remnants
of a large mountain range that
was created when North
America rammed into Eurasia
about 250 million years ago.

Figure 6.24: The Himalaya

Mountains are the result of the
collision of the Indian Plate with
the Eurasian Plate, seen in this
photo from the International
Space Station. The high peak in
the center is world's tallest
mountain, Mount Everest (8,848
meters; 29,035 feet).

Transform Plate Boundaries

Figure 6.25: At the San Andreas

Fault in California, the Pacific
Plate is sliding northeast relative
to the North American plate, which
is moving southwest. At the
northern end of the picture, the

transform boundary turns into a

subduction zone.

Transform plate boundaries

are seen as transform
faults. At these earthquake
faults, two plates move past
each other in opposite
directions. Where transform
faults bisect continents, there
are massive earthquakes.
The world's most notorious
transform fault is the 1,300

kilometer (800 mile) long San

Andreas Fault in California
(Figure 6.25). This is where
the Pacific and North
American plates grind past
each other, sometimes with
disastrous consequences.
California is very geologically
active. A transform plate
boundary creates the San
Andreas Fault. A convergent

plate boundary between an

oceanic plate and a
continental plate creates the
Cascades volcanoes. Just
offshore, the Juan de Fuca
ridge is subducting beneath
the North American plate at a
divergent plate boundary.
Earth's Changing Surface

Geologists now know that

Wegener was right when he

said that the continents had

once been joined into the
supercontinent Pangaea and
are now moving apart. Most
of the geologic activity that we
see on the planet today is due
to the interactions of the
moving plates. Where plates
come apart at a divergent
boundary, there is volcanic
activity and small

earthquakes. If the plates

meet at a convergent
boundary, and at least one is
oceanic, there is a chain of
volcanoes and many
earthquakes. If both plates at
a convergent boundary are
continental, mountain ranges
grow. If the plates meet at a
transform boundary, there is a
transform fault. These faults

do not have volcanic activity

but they have massive
earthquakes.
If you look at a map showing
the locations of volcanoes
and earthquakes in North
America, you will see that the
plate boundaries are now
along the western edge. This
geologically active area
makes up part of the Pacific

Ring of Fire. California, with

its volcanoes and
earthquakes, is an important
part of this region. The
eastern edge of North
America is currently mostly
quiet, although mountain
ranges line the area. If there
is no plate boundary there
today, where did those
mountains come from?

Remember that Wegener

used the similarity of the
mountains in eastern North
America, on the west side of
the Atlantic, and the
mountains in Great Britain, on
the eastern side of the
Atlantic, as evidence for his
continental drift hypothesis.
These mountains were
formed at a convergent plate

boundary as the continents

that made up Pangaea came
together. So about 200 million
years ago these mountains
were similar to the Himalaya
today (Figure 6.26)!

Figure 6.26: The Appalachian

Mountains of eastern North
America were probably once as
high as the Himalaya, but they
have aged since the breakup of
Pangaea.

Before the continents collided

they were separated by an
ocean, just as the continents
rimming the Pacific are now.
That ocean crust had to
subduct beneath the
continents just as the oceanic

crust around the Pacific is

being subducted today.
Subduction along the eastern
margin of North America
produced continental arc
volcanoes. Ancient lava from
those volcanoes can be found
in the region.
Currently, Earth's most
geologically active area is
around the Pacific. The

Pacific is shrinking at the

same time the Atlantic is
growing. But hundreds of
millions of years ago, that
was reversed: the Atlantic
was shrinking as the Pacific
was growing. What weve just
identified is a cycle, known as
the supercontinent cycle,
which is responsible for most
of the geologic features that

we see and many more that

are long gone. Scientists think
that the creation and breakup
of a supercontinent takes
place about every 500 million
years.
Intraplate Activity

While it is true that most

geological activity takes place
along plate boundaries, some
is found away from the edges

of plates. This is known

as intraplate activity. The
most common intraplate
volcanoes are above hotspots
that lie beneath oceanic
plates. Hotspot volcanoes
arise because plumes of hot
material that come from deep
in the mantle rise through the
overlying mantle and crust.
When the magma reaches

the plate above, it erupts,

forming a volcano. Since the
hotspot is stable, when the
oceanic plate moves over it,
and it erupts again, another
volcano is created in line with
the first. With time, there is a
line of volcanoes; the
youngest is directly above the
hot spot and the oldest is
furthest away. Recent

research suggests that

hotspots are not as stable as
scientists once thought, but
some larger ones still appear
to be.
The Hawaiian Islands are a
beautiful example of a chain
of hotspot volcanoes. Kilauea
volcano on the south side of
the Big Island of Hawaii lies
above the Hawaiian hot spot.

The Big Island is on the

southeastern end of the
Hawaiian chain. Mauna Loa
volcano, to the northwest, is
older than Kilauea and is still
erupting, but at a lower rate.
Hawaii is the youngest island
in the chain. As you follow the
chain to the west, the islands
get progressively older

because they are further from

the hotspot (Figure 6.27).

Figure 6.27: This view of the

Hawaiian islands shows that the
youngest islands are in the
southeast and the oldest in the
northwest. Kilauea volcano, which
makes up the southeastern side of
the Big Island of Hawaiian, is
located above the Hawaiian
hotspot.

The chain continues into the

Emperor Seamounts, which
are so old they no longer
reach above sea level. The
oldest of the Emperor

seamounts is about to
subduct into the Aleutian
trench off of Alaska; no one
knows how many older
volcanoes have already
subducted. It's obvious from
looking at the Emperor
seamounts that the Pacific
plate took a large turn.
Radiometric dating has
shown that turn to have taken

place about 43 million years

ago (Figure 6.28). The Hawaii
hotspot may also have been
moving southward during this
time. Still, geologists can use
some hotspot chains to tell
not only the direction but the
speed a plate is moving.

Figure 6.28: The Hawaii-Emperor

chain creates a large angular
gash across the Pacific basin in
this satellite image. The bend in
the chain is due to a change in the
direction of motion of the Pacific
plate 43 million years ago.

Hot spots are also found

under the continental crust,
although it is more difficult for
the magma to make it through
the thick crust and there are
few eruptions. One exception
is Yellowstone, which creates
the activity at the Yellowstone
hotspot. In the past, the
hotspot produced enormous
volcanic eruptions, but now its

activity is best seen in the

region's famous geysers.
Lesson Summary

Driven by mantle
convection, the plates of
lithosphere move around
Earths surface. New
oceanic crust forms at the
ridge and pushes the older
seafloor away from the ridge
horizontally.

 Plates interact at three

different types of plate
boundaries, divergent,
convergent and transform
fault boundaries, which are
where most of the Earths
geologic activity takes place.
These processes acting
over long periods of time are
responsible for the
geographic features we see.

Review Questions

1. What are the three types

of plate boundaries? For
each type, what sort of
geologic activity do you
find?
2. As a working geologist,
you come across a
landscape with a massive
fault zone that produces
lots of large earthquakes,

but has no volcanoes.

What type of plate
boundary have you come
across? What are the
movements of plates
relative to each other at
this type of boundary?
Where would you find a
plate boundary of this type
in California?

3. You continue on your

geologic tour to a location
where there is a chain of
volcanoes on land, but not
too far inland from the edge
of the continent. The region
experiences frequent large
earthquakes. What type of
plate boundary have you
come across? What types
of plates are involved?

Where would you find a

plate boundary of this type
in California?
4. What is the driving force
behind the movement of
lithospheric plates on the
Earth's surface? About how
fast do the plates move?
5. How does the theory of
plate tectonics explain the
locations of volcanoes,

earthquakes and mountain

belts on Earth?
6. Thinking about the
different types of plate
boundaries, explain why
continental crust is much
thicker than oceanic crust.
7. Why are there few (if
any) volcanoes along
transform plate
boundaries?

Vocabulary

batholith
An enormous body of
granitic rock that is formed
from a large number of
plutons.
continental arc
A line of volcanoes sitting
on a continental plate and
aligned above a subducting

oceanic plate near a deep

sea trench.
continental rifting
A divergent plate boundary
that forms in the middle of a
continent.
convergent plate
boundary
A location where two
lithospheric plates come
together.

divergent plate
boundary
A location where two
lithospheric plates spread
apart.
epicenter
The point on the Earth's
surface directly above an
earthquake's focus, which
is the place where the
ground breaks.

fault
A fracture along which
there has been movement
of rock on one or both
sides.
intraplate activity
Geologic activity such as
volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes that takes
place away from plate
boundaries.

island arc
A line of volcanoes sitting
on an oceanic plate above
a subducting oceanic plate
near a deep sea trench.
plate
A slab of the earth's
lithosphere that can move
around on the planet's
surface.
plate boundary

A location where two plates

come together.
plate tectonics
The theory that the Earth's
surface is divided into
lithospheric plates that
move on the planet's
surface. The driving force
behind plate tectonics is
mantle convection.
pluton

A relatively small body of

igneous intrusive rock.
subduction
The sinking of one
lithospheric plate beneath
another.
subduction
zone
The area where two
lithospheric plates come

together and one sinks

beneath the other.
superconti
nent cycle
The cycle in which the
continents join into one
supercontinent on one side
of the planet and then
break apart.
transfor
m fault

An earthquake fault where

relative motion is sliding
past.
transfor
m plate
boundar
y
The type of plate boundary
where two plates slide past
one another.
Points to
Consider

On
the
map
in
Figure
6.14
above
, the
arrow
s
show

the
directi
ons
that
the
plates
are
going.
The
Atlanti
c has

a midocean
ridge,
where
seaflo
or
sprea
ding is
taking
place.
The

Pacific
ocean
has
many
deep
sea
trench
es,
where
subdu
ction

is
taking
place.
What
is the
future
of the
Atlanti
c
plate?
What

is the
future
of the
Pacific
plate?
Using
your
hands
and
words,
explai

n to
some
one
how
plate
tectoni
cs
works.
Be
sure
you

descri
be
how
contin
ents
drift
and
how
seaflo
or
sprea

ding
provid
es a
mech
anism
for
contin
ental
move
ment.

Now
that
you
know
about
plate
tectoni
cs,
where
do
you

think
would
be a
safe
place
to live
if you
wante
d to
avoid
volcan

ic
erupti
ons
and
earthq
uakes
?