Plate Tectonics

RECALL: What is
Plate Tectonics?

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The Earth is broken into large Plates.

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The size and position of Plates change.

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Plate edges colliding - geologic activity
Creation and separation of continents
 THE MECHANISMS OF
PLATE TECTONICS
Lots of mechanisms that cause the plates
to move have been proposed (and rejected)
although most geologists accept one idea as
the most likely mechanisms for plate
tectonics : THE CONVECTION
The Earth’s interior has the great part of
the Plate Tectonics
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WHAT IS CONVECTION?
Let’s us look inside the Earth. We know that it is really hot
most likely in the inner core and it is being considered as the
source of the internal heat of the Earth : those internal heat
became sources of different energies, regulated, manufactured
and used by us for everyday living. BUT, that internal heat
comes from inside the Earth causes other events due to
changes of the structure and creation of new forms in the
lithosphere of our planet SUCH AS :
 Earthquakes & Volcanoes
 Mountains
 Deep ocean vents – site of creation of life
Convection Current
Plates are driven by cooling of Earth (convection)
Gravity provides additional force to move plates.

A subduction zone is a
? region of the Earth's crust
? ? where tectonic plates
meet.
A Spreading ridge is the
fracture zone along the
ocean bottom where
molten mantle material
comes to the surface, thus
creating new crust

Convection is like a boiling pot. 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.
Plate tectonics

HEAT
In the big picture, Earth gives off heat to cool. The heat energy from
Earth’s interior produces the melt that both makes continental and
oceanic plates moves them around on the Earth.
Plate tectonics

Releases the
heat up
to cool down
HEAT
Convection moves hot material from Earth’s interior up to the surface to cool;
gravity with convection draws the dense material back into the hotter interior;
this is an efficient way for our planet to cool. In kid vernacular, “heat rises,
gravity destroys.”
Plate tectonics

The mobile rock beneath the rigid plates is believed to be

moving in a circular manner somewhat like a pot of thick
soup when heated to boiling.
FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT CONVECTION….

- Have you ever used a step-stool or ladder to change a light bulb? If

you have, you might notice that the air, higher up in the room is
warmer. Air is a fluid and is also effected by convection.
- Next time you go swimming in a pool, try noticing the temperature
difference between the water at the surface and the cooler, deeper
water. Again, separation of fluids by density….convection in action.
- Compare two bowls of hot soup. Blow across one bowl and leave the
other bowl alone. You are driving convection faster in the bowl you
blow across! You cool the top surface, it sinks and the hot soup below
rises and also gets cooled.
-Convection effects fluid movement on very large scales too. It is an
important part of the weather cycle. It drives ocean currents as well as
the motion of semisolid rock within the earth. Convection even moves
material in star.
This cycle is repeated over and over
to generate what scientists call a
convection cell or convective flow

Convective flow can be observed

easily in a pot of boiling soup, the
idea of such a process stirring up
the Earth's interior
 This cycle is resulted to

CREATION OF BOUNDARIES
- leads of the continuous separation and
movement of the Earth’s crust
 Three Basic Types of Plate Boundaries
Divergent Using hands to show relative motion

Transfor
Convergent m

USGS Graphics
Convergent Boundaries
Places where plates crash
or crunch into each other.
All the folding and bending
makes rock in both plates
break and slip, causing
earthquakes. Rock deep in
the Earth melts, builds up
pressure causing
volcanoes.
Divergent Boundaries
Places where plates come apart are called divergent
boundaries. When Earth's brittle surface layer is pulled
apart, it breaks along parallel faults that tilt slightly
outward from each other. As the plates separate along
the boundary, the block between the faults cracks and
drops down into the soft, plastic interior. The sinking of
the block forms a central valley called a rift. Magma
(liquid rock) seeps upward to fill the cracks. In this
way, new crust is formed along the boundary.
Divergent Boundaries
 Transform Boundaries
Places where plates slide past each other are
called transform boundaries. The most famous
transform boundary in the world is the San
Andreas fault. Los Angeles will not crack off and
fall into the ocean as popularly thought, but it
will simply creep towards San Francisco at
about 6 centimeters per year. In 16 million
years, the plates will have moved so much that
Los Angeles will be north of San Francisco!
Transform Boundaries
Summary Illustration
Or Simply….
CONVERGENT – PLATES THAT ARE MOVING
TOWARDS FROM EACH OTHER

DIVERGENT – PLATES THAT ARE MOVING

AWAY FROM EACH OTHER

TRANSFORM - PLATES THAT ARE MOVING

PAST FROM EACH OTHER