Part 1: Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes

This PowerPoint presentation provides an Introduction to Plate

Tectonics and Earthquakes. Teachers are encouraged to use this
presentation for their own learning and/or adapt the
presentation for classroom use. This PowerPoint presentation can
be used in conjunction with the PlateTectonics&EQsGuide, a PDF
that provides a logical outline of this PowerPoint and its
companion Earthquake Seismology PowerPoint.
Underlined orange text indicates a link to a teaching resource
on the TOTLE web site. When you view the PowerPoint
presentation in Slide Show view, you can click on the underlined
orange text to send your web browser to the linked web page.
Normal view in PowerPoint includes a notes panel below each
slide. Background information, links to computer animations, video
lectures, lesson plans, classroom activities, and lots of teaching
tips are contained in the notes.
We recommend that you first view this presentation in Slide
Show view then return to slide #1 and step through the
presentation in Normal view to examine the notes.
 Earth
vs.
Egg

Earth radius = 6370 km

Lithosphere (plate) thickness = 100 km
What % of Earth radius is lithosphere? ~2%

Egg radius = 0.75 inch

Egg shell thickness = 0.015 inch
What % of egg radius is shell? 2%

How do these compare? Watch video lecture

EggVsEarth
Plate tectonics
Plates are driven by cooling of Earth.
Gravity provides additional force to move plates.

Modified from USGS Graphics

Convection is like a boiling pot.

Plate tectonics
Convection in Earths interior is like a boiling pot.

Modified from USGS Graphics

The heated soup rises to the surface, spreads and begins to cool, and then
sinks back to the bottom of the pot where it is reheated and rises again.
 Tectonic Plates
There are a dozen large lithospheric plates (smaller plates not shown).
Some plates have continents; some dont. All are in motion.

Question: What evidence is there for these plate boundaries?

Flash Rollovers
Tectonic Plates & Plates, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes
Seismicity & Distribution of Earthquakes
There are thousands of small earthquakes every day
Strong earthquakes (~M7) occur once a month. >M8 occur about once/year.

Where are the deepest earthquakes?

World Seismicity & Plate Tectonics
Notice that earthquakes coincide with plate boundaries,
and the deepest quakes (blue) are in subduction zones.

Question: Where would you expect to see volcanoes?

Modified from USGS Graphics

Seismicity, Tectonics, and Volcanoes
This map shows that the locations of subaerial (above
sea level) volcanoes correlate with earthquake locations.

Modified from USGS Graphics

Seismicity, Tectonics, & Volcanoes
The Earth is divided into relatively stable regions
bounded by linear zones of earthquakes and volcanoes.

Modified from USGS Graphics

 Tectonic Plates
How fast are the plates moving?
Plates move 1-10 centimeters per year ( rate of fingernail growth).

Modified from USGS Graphics

 Tectonic Plates
What is the motion of the plates relative to the
North American Plate?
(rememberthe map is flat, but the globe is not.)

Image from
EarthScope
Voyager, Jr.

Next slide: What are the tectonic plates?

 What are the tectonic plates?

Lithosphere
Is the ~100-km-thick surface of Earth;
Contains crust and upper mantle;
Is rigid and brittle;
Fractures to produce earthquakes. Watch video lecture
Lithospheric plates
USGS Graphics What is the asthenosphere?

Asthenosphere:
Is the hotter upper mantle below the
lithospheric plate;
Can flow like silly putty; and
Is a viscoelastic solid, NOT liquid!!
Watch video lecture
Properties of the asthenosphere
 Three Basic Types of Plate Boundaries
Divergent Using hands to show relative motion

Transform
Convergent

USGS Graphics
 Three Basic Types of Plate Boundaries
Divergent

Transform
Convergent

Watch video lecture

Plate boundaries

USGS Graphics
 Divergent boundaries
New crust is generated as the plates pull apart.
Occur at spreading ocean ridges and in continental rifts.
Earthquakes are shallow and small.

USGS sea-floor maps

Example: Examples:
East Pacific Rise (moving Atlantic mid-ocean ridge
apart at about 15 cm/year) Basin and Range, USA
African Rift Valley
Northern Red Sea
 Convergent Plate Boundaries
Plates push together.
A) The denser plate
subducts, or
B) two continental plates
crunch together to
form high mountains.
Ocean /Ocean convergence (Marianas)

Ocean /Continent convergence (Cascades) Continent/Continent Collision (Himalayas)

Next slide: Why and where would earthquakes occur in convergent boundaries?
 Earthquakes along Convergent Zones with
Subducting Oceanic Lithosphere

Shallow earthquakes:
The most destructive of these
occur between the plates
on the plate boundary.
Shallow earthquakes also occur
within the subducting plate
and within the overriding
plate near the plate boundary.

Intermediate and Deep earthquakes:

The depth range defined as intermediate is 100 300 km deep
while deep earthquakes are in the 300 700 km depth range.
Intermediate and deep earthquakes occur only within the
subducting oceanic lithosphere.
Transform Boundaries
Lithosphere is neither produced nor destroyed as

the plates slide horizontally past each other.

Strike-slip fault Strike-slip fault between

two spreading ridges
Example: allows the two plates to
San Andreas Fault, California move apart.
 Deforming Earths Crust
Types of stress: Extension, Compression, Shear
Undeformed beds: no stress applied.

Extension makes faults and regional

thinning. (Ex., Basin & Range.)

Compression makes faults and folds.

(Ex., Rocky Mountains.)

Shearing displaces layers horizontally

and can result in strike-slip faulting.
(Ex., San Andreas Fault, California.)
 Types of Faults
Normal Reverse Strike-slip

Links to animations are provided in the Notes panel in normal view.

Can you think of examples of each?

Watch video lecture
Activity: Foam models of faults. Foam fault
demonstrations
 Normal Reverse Strike slip
Basin & Range Himalayas San Andreas, Calif.
African Rift Rocky Mountains N. Anatolian, Turkey

USGS photographs
Elastic Rebound TheoryStick-slip
Jerky motions on faults produce earthquakes

Three Fs of earthquakes: Forces, Faults, and Friction.

 Epicenter & Focus of Earthquakes
Epicenter:
Location on Earths surface directly above the earthquake.

Focus (or hypocenter):

Location within the Earth where the earthquake occurred.
Watch video lecture Earthquake focus (hypocenter) and epicenter
To learn more about earthquakes,
view the PowerPoint slide show
EarthquakeSeismology.ppt
See notes for link.