PLATE TECTONICS

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PLATE TECTONICS

• THE PAST IS THE KEY TO THE FUTURE

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• In geologic terms, a plate is a large, rigid slab
  of solid rock.
• The word tectonics comes from the Greek root "to
  build."
• which refers to how the Earth's surface is built
  of plates.
• The theory of plate tectonics states that the
  Earth's outermost layer is fragmented into a
  dozen or more large and small plates that are
  moving relative to one another as they ride atop
  hotter, more mobile material.

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• The diagrams show the break-up of the super
  continent Pangaea (meaning "all lands" in Greek),
  
• which figured prominently in the theory of
  continental drift -- Pangaea began to break up
  about 225-200 million years ago,
• eventually fragmenting into the continents as we
  know them today.

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• Plate tectonics is a relatively new scientific
  concept, introduced
• 30 years
• ago

Geez 30 is SOOOOO OLD!!!
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• The plates consist of an outer layer of the
  Earth, the lithosphere,
• which is cool enough to behave as a rigid shell.
• Occasionally the hot asthenosphere of the Earth
  finds a weak place in the lithosphere to rise as
  a plume
• PLATE BOUNDARIES!!!

Oh Behave
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• There are THREE types of plate boundaries
• DIVERGENT Boundaries -- where new crust is
  generated as the plates pull away from each
  other.
• Plate boundary zones -- broad belts in which
  boundaries are not well defined and the effects
  of plate interaction are unclear.

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mmm hot syrup
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N. A. PLATE
Eurasian PLATE
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II CONVERGENT boundaries -- where crust is
destroyed as one plate DIVES under
another. SUBDUCTION BOUNDARY
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L I Q U I D H O T M A G M A
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Burn baby burn, Disco inferno!!!
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• Subduction processes in oceanic-oceanic plate
  convergence also result in the formation of
  volcanoes
• Such volcanoes are typically strung out in chains
  called island arcs.
• island arcs such as the Marianas and the Aleutian
  Islands have formed and why they experience
  numerous strong earthquakes

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Nothing is melting here!!!
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• When two continents meet head-on, neither is
  subducted because the continental rocks are
  relatively light and, resist (NO) downward
  motion.
• Himalayan mountain range
• With MT. EVEREST!!!

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III TRANSFORM boundaries -- where crust is
neither produced nor destroyed as the ROUGH
plates slide horizontally past each other.
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• zone between two plates sliding horizontally past
  one another is called a transform-fault boundary
• Most transform faults are found on the ocean
  floor. They commonly offset the active spreading
  ridges, producing zig-zag plate margins
• San Andreas fault zone in California

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If you were given a map, you could be able to
label1Divergent boundary2 Convergent
Boundaries 3 ocean-ocean 4 ocean-continent 5
continent-continent6 Transform Boundary
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Disco Stu is tellin YOU This is the last
Hawaiian Island above water, all the rest are
DOWN LOW!!!