Chapter 2: Plate Tectonics

The goals and objectives of this chapter are to:

Understand the internal structure of the earth

Compare and contrast the science behind the theory

of continental drift and the theory of plate tectonics

Explain the various types of tectonic plate boundaries and their

geologic effects

Structure of the Earth

This is a file from the Wikimedia

Commons.

The most powerful forces on the planet are earthquakes and volcanoes. On
December 26, 2004, the second most powerful earthquake in the last 100
years occurred off the coast of Indonesia creating a massive tsunami.
Several volcanoes also erupted shortly afterward in the local region. By the
end of the day, over 240,000 people had died. It is possible that the
earthquake occurred because another one in Iran a year earlier, killing over
20,000 people, weakened the Asian fault. In October 2005, a powerful
earthquake in Kashmir, India killed over 80,000 people. And just before 5
p.m. January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the
Caribbean nation of Haiti, leaving more than 250,000 dead, 300,000
wounded and more than one million people homeless. On March 11, 2011,
Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake followed by a devastating

tsunami that killed over 30,000 people. So why do earthquakes and

volcanoes occur? Is there a direct relationship between the two? In order to
understand earthquakes and volcanoes, you have to understand the grander
theory called Plate Tectonics.
The earth consists of three layers: an inner and outer core, the mantle, and
two types of crust. The earth's core consists of two parts: a liquid outer core
and a solid inner core, both made of iron and nickel from the early make-up
of the planet where the temperatures can range from 8,600 degrees to 9,600
degrees Fahrenheit. The next and largest layer is called the mantle, which
makes up two-thirds of Earth's mass. The mantle is actually called a plastic
solid, which means it has the ability to flow very slowly. Heat from the
earth's core causes the mantle to convect, like water over a stove but much
slower, and it is the mantle's convection that is the driving force of plate
tectonics.

The surface layer of the earth is called the crust and it makes up only 1 percent of
Earth's mass. The crust is subdivided into two components: oceanic and continental
crust. Again referring back to the image on the right, note that the oceanic crust is
only about 3 miles thick, but is slightly more dense than continental crust. Most of this
oceanic rock is called basalt and is a dark, dense rock.
Continental crust is much thicker than oceanic crust (averages between 20 to 25
miles thick), but is actually slightly less dense than oceanic crust. The main type of rock
on continents is called granite. So if these two types of crust were to collide into each
other, what do you think would happen to the oceanic crust? As a whole, notice that the
crust is lighter than the mantle. It is sometimes said that the crust "floats" on the
mantle like an iceberg in water and that is not too far from the truth and is
called isostacy. Finally, the crust is the coldest, most rigid, and brittle layer with lots of
folds and fractures.

Continental Drift

Domain.

Image copyright: (USGS) under Public

In the early 1900s, a climatologist named Alfred Wegener proposed

a hypothesis that at one time all of the continents were once together,
creating a super-continent called Pangea, which later broke apart
intoGondwanaland and Laurasia and finally the continents today. Over
many years Wegner accumulated a lot of evidence to support
his theory called continental drift. First, he noticed on world maps that the
continents looked like large pieces of a world puzzle that could be put
together to form a massive super-continent. Later he found similar plant and
animal fossils on different continents separated by thousands of miles of
oceans. He questioned how plants could and land species travel thousands of
miles across the ocean to get to other continents; unless at one time all the
continents were once together. Wegener also found climate evidence such as
glaciation in the Sahara Desert and tropical fossils in Antarctica. Ultimately,
Alfred Wegener believed that the crust was not as rigid as others believed,
but actually flowed somehow. Yet he could not come up with a reason why
the continents would move.
Editors Note/Website animation: While researching and learning about this
topic it was hard for me to be able to picture continental movement. I found
a website made by UC Berkley that animates and helps lend something
visual that can help us understand the movements that our earth has
undergone. The website is
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html

Plate Tectonics
Because Alfred Wegener could not propose a reason why continents would
move, most of the scientific community never believed him before he died. It
wasn't until the 1960s, during the Cold War, did technology finally catch up

with Wegener's hypothesis. The United States military developed sonar as a

way to look for Soviet submarines and in the process they discovered the
largest mountain range in the world in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, later
called the mid-Atlantic ridge.

As more research was done to better understand the ocean floor, scientists
discovered that the polar direction of magnetized rocks would reverse or flip
symmetrical from the mid-Atlantic ridge, called paleomagnetism. At one
point all the rocks are pointing toward magnetic north, followed by pointing
toward magnetic south in the distant past, then magnetic north and so forth
on equal sides of the mid-Atlantic ridge like a mirror image of each other.

This proved that the earth's magnetic field has flipped several times
throughout earth's history. Further research found that the youngest oceanic
rocks exist near ocean ridges like the mid-Atlantic ridge and get older away
from it.
All this evidence, including the data collected by Alfred Wegner's for this theory of
continental drift, was put together to form the theory of plate tectonics. The theory
states that the earth is made of several tectonic plates along with several smaller
plates. Each tectonic plate consists of oceanic and continental crust. Scientists now
realize that new oceanic rock is forming at these mid-oceanic ridges creating large
mountain ranges. When this molten rock along the ridges rises to the Earths surface,
the iron within them quickly points toward magnetic north (or magnetic south if the
polarity has reversed) much like a compass before cooling into rock.

Image copyright: United States Geologic Survey licensed as Public Domain.

Editors Note/Scientific Article: The fact that we are left to put together the geological evidence of our
planet to find out its history means that we are constantly still finding new facts out about our planet.
A group of researchers have come up with a new theory that changes what we know about the
movement and formation of the plates as we know them today. They have found evidence of tectonic
plates that have all but disappeared and Instead of an Andes-style subduction zone, with the Farallon plate
sliding to the east under North America, there was a westward-dipping subduction zone, with North American crust

sliding beneath the Angauychum and Mezcalera plates. The full article can be found at
http://www.livescience.com/28401-north-america-geology.html

Image copyright: Creative Commons

licensed as Public Domain.

But if new oceanic rock is forming, and the earth is not growing, oceanic rock
must be destroyed somewhere else. We now realize this occurs along the
boundaries between lighter continental crust and denser oceanic crust.
When the two collide, the heavier oceanic rock subducts underneath the
lighter continental crust in a process called subduction. As the oceanic rock
subducts downward, it can get locked up building large amounts of energy.
Once the energy is too strong, the rock snaps free releasing that energy,
called anearthquake. If the crust subducts deep enough, it may begin to
melt into molten rock called magma. Magma is less dense than solid rock,
so the magma rises to the surface to create volcanoes. So there is a direct
relationship between earthquakes and volcanoes. In fact, the Ring of Fire in
the Pacific Ocean consists of several subduction zones and is where 90
percent of all earthquakes and volcanoes occur.
Editors note/Video: In the link
(http://ideaconnector.net/blog/2015/01/06/elsie-macdonald-escapingpoverty-in-the-ring-of-fire-2/) contains a video of escaping poverty along the
ring of fire. This is a big problem because the poverty level is very high along
the ring of fire and the potential for natural disasters that can affect their
meager livelyhoods is extremely high. We need to provide assistance to help
raise these people up out of poverty so that when these disasters do strike
they do much less damage to property and more importantly to lives.

Tectonic Plate Boundaries

There are three major types of tectonic plate

boundares: convergent, divergent, and transform. Let's first look at
convergent plate boundaries, which can be broken down into three
subcategories.
Recall that oceanic crust is denser than continental rock like granite. Thus
when two tectonic plates collide, the denser oceanic crust will subduct
underneath the lighter continental crust. If the subducting rock becomes

stuck, vast amounts of energy builds up. But once the pressure and energy is
too great, the rock will rupture creating powerful earthquakes. As the
subducted material sinks further, it will begin to melt under great heat and
pressure, becoming less dense as it melts, and rise up as magma to form
dangerous composite volcanoes. Mountain ranges created by oceanic-tocontinental convergence are the Andes mountains in South America, the
Cascades in the western United States, and the Ring of Fire in the Pacific
Ocean.
Below is a Google Earth image showing a series of oceanic-to-oceanic subduction zones
within the Pacific Ring of Fire. You can visibily see the subduciton zones that create the
volcanic and powerful Aleutian Islands and the converging subduction plates that make
of volcanic islands of Japan.

With oceanic-to-oceanic convergence, the heavier of the two will subduct

down beneath the other. Just like continental-to-oceanic convergence, this
plate boundary can generate powerful earthquakes and volcanoes; but
instead of volcanoes on land, volcanic islands form such as Japan, the
Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and Indonesia. The great earthquake in Indonesia
in 2004, which produced the devastating tsunami, was created by this
process along with the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
When two continental plates converge, instead of subduction, the two similar tectonic
plates will buckle up to create large mountain ranges like a massive car pile-up. This is
called continental-to-continental convergence, and geologically creates intense
folding and faulting rather than volcanic activity. Examples of mountain ranges created
by this process are the Himalayan mountains (taken from the International Space
Station) as India is colliding with Asia, the Alps in Europe, and the Appalacian mountains
in the United States as the North American plate collided with the African plate when
Pangea was forming. The Kashmir India earthquake of 2005 that killed over 80,000
people occurred because of this process. And most recently, the 2008 earthquake in
China which killed nearly 85,000 people before the Summer Olympics was because of
this tectonic force.
Editors Note/Picture: I know this picture is for children but to me it perfectly shows what
the difference between the tectonic plates/continental crust and the less solid
subsurface underneath.

When convection within the mantel causes two tectonic plates move away from each
other, or when a tectonic plate tears itself apart, divergent boundaries can form. As
divergence occurs, shallow earthquakes can occur along with volcanoes along the rift
areas. When the process begins, a valley will develop such as the Great Rift Valley in
Africa. Over time that valley can fill up with water creating linear lakes. If divergence
continues, a sea can form like the Red Sea and finally an ocean like the Atlantic Ocean.
Check out the eastern half of Africa and notice the lakes that look linear. Eastern Africa
is tearing apart from these linear lakes, to the Great Rift Valley, and up to the Red Sea.
Notice how the Red Sea looks like it could be put back together again. The ultimate
divergent boundary is the Atlantic Ocean, which began when Pangea broke apart.
Below are two satellite images using Google Earth, both focusing on parts of Africa. On
the left yo can see rift valleys that have filled in with water to form linear lakes. On the
right in northern Africa, you can see the Red Sea with a rift valley in the center, which
use to be a linear lake that grew into a sea. If the Red Sea continues to grow, it could
form an ocean similar to the Atlantic Ocean with the mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Transform boundaries occurs when two tectonic plates slide (or grind) past
parallel to each other. The most famous transform boundary is the San
Andreas Fault where the Pacific plate (that Los Angeles and Hawaii are on)
is grinding past the North American plate (that San Francisco and the rest of
the United States is on) at the rate of 3 inches a year. Recently, geologists
have stated that San Francisco should expect another disastrous earthquake
in the next 30 years. Another important transform boundary is the North
Anatolian Fault in Turkey. This powerful fault last ruptured in 1999 in Izmit,
Turkey which killed 17,000 people in 48 seconds.

Comparison of the San Andreas Fault, CA and the North Anatolian Fault in Turkey.
Both are located along transform boundaries. Image source: United States Geologic
Survey (USGS).

Below is an interesting video from National Geographic called Colliding

Continents. It takes a hypothetical situation of humans coming back to Earth
in the distant future and uses the idea of Plate Tectonics to understand the
past.
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San Andreas F