me | One Page | X-Sects. | B-Rift | E-Volc. Arc | F-Arc-Cont. | G-Cordill. | H-Cont.Cont.

| Self Tests

And A Plate Tectonic Rock Cycle

Jump Ahead to
Specific Stages
How Much Do You
Understand - A Self
Test

The Cyclical Opening and Closing of Ocean Basins

No rock is accidental. No idea in geology is more
profound than this; it runs from the center to the whole
of geology and influences every subdiscipline of the field.
Genuine understanding of the science of geology begins
with one's ability to understand and explain why no rock
is accidental.

One Page Wilson

Tectonics is concerned with deformation in the earth
Cycle
Circular Wilson Cycle and the forces which produce deformation. Plate
tectonics is the theory that the earth's lithosphere (outer
Published Wilson
rigid shell) is composed of several dozen "plates", or
Cycle
pieces, which float on a ductile mantle, like slabs of ice
on a pond. In plate tectonic theory earth history, at its
simplest, is one of plates rifting into pieces diverging
Stage A - Stable
apart and new ocean basins being born, followed by
Craton
motion reversal, convergence back together, plate
collision, and mountain building. This cycle of opening
Stage B - Hot
and closing ocean basins is theWilson Cycle.
Spot/Rifting
Plate tectonics is one of the great unifying theories in
geology. Virtually every part of the earth's crust, and
Stage C - Early
every kind of rock and every kind of geology can be
Divergent Margin
related to the plate tectonic conditions which existed at
the time they formed.Nothing in geology makes
Stage D - Full
sense except in terms of plate tectonic theory.
Divergent Margin
One of the most important messages of modern
understanding of plate tectonics and the Wilson cycle is
Stage E - Volcanic
that beginning with a parent igneous rock of
Arc Mtn. Bldg
mafic/ultramafic composition all the other rocks now on
the earth can be generated. The most important
Stage F - Isl
message of the plate tectonic rock cycle is that each and
Arc/Continent
every rock forms only under a specific set of tectonic
Collision
conditions.
Stage G - Cordilleran

Most geologic activity occurs at the three kinds of plate

Mtn. Bldg.
Stage H - ContinentContinent Mtn. Bldg.
Stage I - Stable
Continental Craton

boundaries:
(1) Divergent Boundaries where plates are moving apart
and new crust is being created,
(2) Convergent Boundaries where plates are moving
together and crust is being destroyed, and
(3) Transform Boundaries where plates slide past one
another.

Other Related
Links

Very interesting geology occurs along transform

boundaries, as all the faulting along the San Andreas
A Plate Tectonic Rock fault system in California attests to, but this model does
not include transform boundaries.
Cycle
Page Of All Cross
We have two models summarizing earth evolutionary
Sections
Igneous Home Page processes.
(1) The Wilson Cycle, explored below, and . . .
Sedimentary Home
Page
(2) The Tectonic Rock Cycle, a more theoretically
Metamorphic Home
abstact model of how rocks and the earth evolve.
Page
The following Wilson Cycle model follows the series of
Plate Tectonic Primer
cross sections constituting the Wilson cycle. It begins
with a hypothetical geologically (tectonically) quiet
continent. The model is divided into nine stages, but the
stages are arbitrary and do not exist naturally. The earth
The material is
is an ongoing series of processes so it is much more
copyrighted (text,
important to understand the processes, how they are
images, etc.), but
related, and how one process leads naturally to the next
may be used by
process.
anyone for personal
Also note that this Wilson Cycle is a simple, ideal
or educational
model. The earth has many continents, which migrate
purposes so long as
across its spherical surface in very complex ways. Just
the source is
about any scenario you can think of, and any exception
acknowledged.
you can imagine is quite possible - and has probably
happened during some point in the earth's history.
Lynn S. Fichter
1999
(Fichtels@Jmu.Edu)
Go To Stage A
PDF Version Of Illustrations For All Stages
The Plate Tectonic Rock Cycle
Department of
Geology and
Environmental
Studies (Geology
home
pageJmu.Edu/Geolog
y/)

James Madison
University,
Harrisonburg, VA
22807
Spring, 1999

LSF Home | Geology Web Sites | Courses | JMU Geology

Last Update: 9/05/00

e-mail: (Fichtels@Jmu.Edu)