Plate tectonics

It is a scientific theory that describes the largescale motions of earth's lithosphere. The model builds on the concepts of continental drift, developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geo scientific community accepted the theory after the concepts of sea floor spreading were developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The lithosphere is broken up into techtonic 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.

Tectonic plates are composed of oceanic lithosphere and thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. 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 proposed gradual shrinking (contraction) or gradual expansion of the globe.

Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earth's lithosphere has a higher strength and lower density 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, 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 Sunand the Moon. The relative importance of each of these factors is unclear, and is still subject to debate (see also below).

The key principle of plate tectonics is that the lithosphere exists as separate and distinct tectonic plates, which ride on the fluid-like (viscoelastic solid) asthenosphere. Plate motions range up to a typical 1040 mm /a (mid-atlantic ridge; about as fast as fingernailsgrow), to about 160 mm/a (Nazca Plate; about as fast as hair grows). The driving mechanism behind this movement is described separately 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 and magnesium) and continental crust (sial from silicon and aluminium). Average oceanic lithosphere is typically 100 km (62 mi) thick; its thickness is a function of its age: as time passes, it conductively cools and becomes thicker.

Because it is formed at mid-ocean ridges and spreads outwards, its thickness and therefore a function of its distance from the mid-ocean ridge where it was formed. For a typical distance 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.Continental lithosphere is typically ~200 km thick, though this also 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).

The location where two plates meet is called a plate boundary, and plate boundaries are commonly associated with geological events such as eartquakes and the creation of topographic features such as mountains, volcanoes, mid-ocean 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 most active and most widely known.

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 and to mantle plumes.

As explained above, tectonic plates can include continental crust or oceanic crust, and many 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 arcvolcanism and accretion of terranes through tectonic processes; though some of these terranes may contain pieces of oceanic crust, these are considered 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"). As a result of this density stratification, oceanic crust generally lies below sea level (for example most of the Pacific Plate), while the continental crust buoyantly projects above sea level (see the page isostasy for explanation of this principle).