PLATE TECTONICS

THEORY
SIR ARTHUR HOLMES
-proposed the driving
force for this plate
movement back in
1919.
o Convection takes place in the mantle,
keeping the asthenosphere hot and weak.

o Earth has Seven major lithospheric plates

that account for 94% of the Earth's
surface.

o North American Plate, South American

Plate, Pacific Plate, African Plate, Eurasian
Plate, Indo-Australian Plate, and Antarctic
Plate.
The Major and Minor Lithospheric Plates
Three Main Types of Plate Boundaries

1
CONVERGENT o two plates
move
towards
each other.
 Three Types of Convergence

a. Oceanic-
Oceanic

b. Oceanic-
Continental

c. Continental-
Continental
Three Main Types of Plate Boundaries

2
DIVERGENT
o two plates
move away
from each
other.
Three Main Types of Plate Boundaries

3
TRANSFORM
o two plates
just move
past one
another.
DIVERGENT CONVERGENT
BOUNDARY BOUNDARY
New ocean Ocean floor is
floor is being destroyed
created
Geological Oceanographer
-Those who study all the features
of the ocean floor and how these
were formed
Pangaea was
surrounded
by
Panthalassa
 Panthalassa
• Vast ocean or
superocean
• Also called the
Paleo-Pacific or
“old Pacific”.
Pangaea was Pangaea Eurasian and
surrounded break up into North American
by Laurasia and plates separated,
Panthalassa Gondwanaland Mid-Atlantic
, and Tethys Ridge came
Sea formed about, forming
North Atlantic
African Plate Continued Pacific Ocean
and South movement of separated,
American plates current ocean
Plate created basins formed
separated, Himalayas
South Atlantic
formed
 Two Types of Continental Margin

PASSIVE
CONTINENTAL
MARGIN
o Consists of
continental shelf,
continental slope, and
continental rise
o Very little tectonic
activities
 Two Types of Continental Margin

ACTIVE
CONTINENTAL
MARGIN
o Only has a
continental shelf
and a continental slope
o Main feature of this
boundary is a trench.
o Continental Shelf- gently sloping
submerged portion of the continent
o Continental Slope- deep slope after the
continental shelf
o Continental Rise- gently-sloping area after
the continental slope and before the ocean
floor
o Trenches- deepest parts of the ocean
- narrow depressions caused by
subduction of the ocean floor
o Mid-oceanic Ridge- the mountain range
system in the -ocean