Plate Tectonics

Wegener, Continental Drift and

Pangaea
Pangaea
Pangaea
 Evidence for Continental Drift
 Jigsaw Puzzle fit of
continents

Alfred Wegener
during Greenland
expedition
More evidence
 Matching fossils on
continents now
located thousands
of miles apart.
Example =
Mesosaurus, a
freshwater reptile
 Many others
Matching
mountain
ranges
More evidence
 Matching geologic
structures
including:
– Mountain chains
– Ore deposits
– Same rocks of
same age
 More evidence
 Climate change
evidence
– Glacial deposits at
current equator
– Fossilized palm
trees in Greenland
 Map shows why
according to the
placements of
current continents
within Pangaea
 Wegener not believed
 Why?-
–What could possibly force the
continents to move across the
ocean floor in this way. They
would be crushed.
–He was a meteorologist,
not a geologist
Developments 1950s and 1960s
 World War II submarines using sonar
found mountains under the oceans –
the mid-ocean ridges
 Sea floor drilling showed rocks
younger than expected and youngest
towards the center of the mid-ocean
ridge
 Theory of seafloor spreading
suggested by Princeton professor Dr.
Harry Hess
 Seafloor spreading

First look at the earth’s layers as shown here.

 Structure of the Earth

Mantle
 TheEarth is
made up of 3 Outer core
main layers: Inner core
– Core
– Mantle
– Crust
Crust
 The Crust
 This is where we live!

 The Earth’s crust is

made of:

Continental Crust Oceanic Crust

- thick (10-70km) - thin (~7 km)
- buoyant (less dense - dense (sinks under
than oceanic crust) continental crust)
- mostly old - young
Evidence for sea floor spreading
 Alvin and other
submersibles found cracks
and lava showing
spreading and volcanism
at mid ocean ridges and
odd life forms
 Matthews and Vine’s
survey of the Indian
Ocean sea floor showed
matching stripes of
reversing polarities on
either side of ridge – what
caused these?
– Lava spreading during
alternating magnetic periods
 The Earth’s magnetic field
 It is produced by the
outer core of the earth
which is made of liquid
iron and nickel
 This moving magnetic
material produces a
moving magnetic field,
which in turn produces
a moving electric field.
It is a dynamo!
 Earth’s magnetic field
varies over time and it
protects us from
cosmic radiation
Seafloor spreading and
paleomagnetism
Pangaea revisited
 By piecing together
this information,
we can see how
the continents
have moved over
the past 200
million years, due
to seafloor
spreading
 Plate tectonics
 Sea floor spreading provides the
driving mechanism for movement
 However, it is not the continents that
are moving, but the “plates” of
lithosphere “floating” in effect on the
asthenosphere
 The lithosphere is made up of about
20 plates which move relative to
each other in several ways
 Let’s look at a generalized sketch
 Confirmation of the Theory of
Plate Tectonics
Evidence supporting the
theory of plate tectonics:

Apparent Polar wandering:

plate movement causes the
apparent position of the
magnetic poles to have shifted.

The paleomagnetic fields in the

rocks would indicate a single
pole until the continents drift
apart.
Confirmation of Plate Tectonics Theory
Paleomagnetism: strips of alternating magnetic polarity at
spreading regions.

The patterns of paleomagnetism support plate tectonic

theory. The molten rocks at the spreading center take on
the polarity of the planet while they are cooling. When
Earth’s polarity reverses, the polarity of newly formed
The Plates
“Plates” of lithosphere are moved around by the underlying hot mantle
convection cells
 Plate Tectonics
An overview of the tectonic system.
Sea-Floor Spreading and Plate
Boundaries
 3 types of boundaries
 Convergent –
where plates come
together. See
example next slide
Age of Oceanic Crust

Courtesy of
www.ngdc.noaa.gov
Mid Atlantic Ridge

Mid Atlantic Ridge

 Divergent Boundaries

 Spreading ridges
– As plates move apart new material is
erupted to fill the gap
Iceland: An example of continental rifting
 Iceland has a divergent
plate boundary running
through its middle
 North American Plate and
Eurasia Plate diverging
East Africa Rift Valley
East Africa Rift Valley
Subduction

 Oceanic lithosphere
subducts underneath the
continental lithosphere
 Oceanic lithosphere
heats and dehydrates as
it subsides
 The melt rises forming
volcanism
 E.g. The Andes
Continent-Oceanic Crust Collision
 Called SUBDUCTION
Deep Ocean Trench
Andes Mountains in South America
 Andes Mountains
formed along the coast
of South America

 Nazca Plate dives

under the South
American Plate
 Subduction
Island Formation
Volcanoes in Japan

Japan
Japan formed as an island chain as
the Pacific Plate dives beneath the
Eurasian Plate

Mt Fuji
Aleutian Islands Chain
off Alaska
Aleutian Islands formed
as an island chain as
Pacific Plate dives
beneath North
American Plate
Continent-Continent Collision
 Forms mountains, e.g. European Alps,
Himalayas
Himalayas
Converging Margins: India-Asia
Collision
 Alps in
Europe
Collision of Africa and Eurasia
Interesting plate collision
 This picture shows a
place in
Newfoundland where
a massive collision
actually forced
mantle rock on top
of the crust, during
the collision that
formed Pangaea and
the Appalachian
mountains. This
looks down the old
plate boundary.
Mantle rocks are toxic
 These rocks have very
different compositions
than crustal rocks.
 They contain heavy
metals, which do not
support life forms on
the earth’s surface, so
few organisms live
there.
 However, in some
places their heavy
metal concentrations
produce rich metal
deposits and are mined
Divergent Boundaries
 Found at spreading
centers – either mid
ocean ridges or mid
continental rift zones
 Transform fault boundary
 This shows the San
Andreas Fault.
 It is a transform fault
boundary, where the
plates move sideways
past each other, rather
than away from each
other (at divergent
boundaries), or
towards each other (at
convergent boundaries)
Transform Fault Boundary
Transform Faults and Seafloor
Spreading
 Review of different boundaries
 Divergent –mid ocean ridge like Iceland or
continental rift zone like the African Rift
Valley
 Convergent
– Ocean/ocean like Japanese Islands
– Continent/ocean like Andes and Cascades
– Continent/continent like the Himalayas
 Transform fault like the San Andreas fault
 Hot spots are not at plate boundaries, but
give us information about plate motion
 Activity
What causes plate tectonics?
 Convection in the mantle, as
the plastic asthenosphere
flows, carrying the plates with
it.
 This is probably aided by slab
pull at subduction zones and
ridge push at mid ocean ridges
and rising plumes in the mantle
 This diagram shows several
different model hypotheses
Plate tectonics causes
volcanic activity
and earthquakes
It causes rocks to be tilted
Or even to fold or break
Volcanoes and Earthquakes and
Plate Boundaries – GIS activity
 Structural Geology
 Isostasy

 Mountains

 Stress and strain

 Folds

 Faults
 Formation of mountains
 Two forces are
constantly at
work on the
earth.
– Weathering
and erosion
tear structures
down while
– Plate tectonics
builds them up
So we have mountains!

But they will not last forever.

 Mountains form in different ways
-Volcanic mountains-
 Volcanoes form by subduction and meltin
 Volcanic mountains form over hot spots
 Volcanic mountains form at rift zones
 Other mountain types
 Folded mountains form
From converging continents like the
Himalayas
 How do these look? Direction?
 Fault block mountains form where blocks of
rock drop at faults – mostly near plate
boundaries, but not always
 Uplifted mountains – where large sections
of the crust are pushed up, perhaps by
magma, or other forces
 Isostasy
 Just as a boat sinks or rises with changes in
weight, so does the crust sink or rise with
changes in weight. Plate tectonics builds
mountains and the extra weight causes the crust
to sink. As erosion occurs the weight of the
mountains decreases and the crust rises again.
This process is called isostasy or isostatic change
 Isostasy
Isostasy is balance. A floating object
is balanced in the water, like an
iceberg. If some of the top melts, the
iceberg rises in the water to stay in
balance. If you get into a boat, the
boat sinks to maintain balance. The
same thing happens with mountains.
As plate motions push it higher the
mountain sinks into the mantle to stay
in balance. On the other hand, when
the mountain erodes, it will rise in the
mantle as the top erodes. So, a
mountain may lose 1 meter from
erosion, but regain 0.8 meters from
rising due to isostasy. It maintains
isostatic equilibrium.
Right! It’s negative.
•This is a good example of
Newton’s 3rd law. For every
force, there is an equal and
opposing force. In this case
the force of gravity is
opposed by the buoyant
force.
•This is also a great
example of feedback within
a system. Is it positive or
negative? Figure it out.
Remember that maintaining
equilibrium is __ feedback
because it keeps the system
in balance. So, what is it,
positive or negative?
 Stress
Due mostly to plate movements,
the earth’s crust is under a lot of
stress. There are 3 types, shown
at the right
A occurs where plates pull apart,
divergent boundaries, and is
called tension
B occurs where plates converge,
and is called compression
C occurs where plates move past
each other, at transform fault
boundaries and is called shearing
 Strain Stress and strain video

 This stress leads to strain

anticline syncline on the crust which bends it.
–
 If it is warm, underground,
it can bend. This called
A fold above and a fault below
ductile deformation.
Features are called folds.
Upturned folds are
anticlines while downturned
folds are synclines.
 Or, the rock may break, if
it is brittle. This causes
faults –breaks of the earth.
Economic value of folds/faults
 Different faults
 Faults move in
different ways,
1
depending on the
type of stress on
them. Here are 3
types that form. 2

 1 is a normal fault

 2 is a strike slip
fault
3
 3 is a reverse fault
 Matching
 These form at
different plate
boundaries. Can 1
you figure out
which forms
where? Match them
2
A. Convergent 3

B. Divergent 1

C. Transform Fault 2
3
Can you match the stress and strain?

A is 1st, B is 3rd, C is 2nd