Structural Geology and Plate

Tectonics

By Terence Black

The Earth's Interior

With all of the scientific advances of the twentieth

century revealed with certainty the composition and
structure of the Earth's interior.
The ideas about how the structure of Earth's interior
comes indirectly from earthquake body waves,
meteorites whose composition is similar to the
Earth's, spacecraft measurements of gravity and
magnetic variations, and laboratory experiments
performed on rocks under very high temperature
and pressure.

Earthquakes

Despite the potential damage earthquakes can

cause, they can be an aid to science. Scientists
can obtain information about the Earth's
internal structure by monitoring earthquake
waves at different locations and by applying
knowledge of wave properties.

Seismic Waves

There are two types of seismic waves that

result from the vibrations produced by
earthquakes.
Surface waves, which travels along the outer
layer of the Earth and body waves which travel
through the Earth.
Surface waves cause the most damage from an
earthquake.

Body Waves

There are two types of body waves: Primary or

compressional waves and Secondary or shear
waves.
Primary waves are longitudinal compressional waves
that are propagated by particles moving longitudinally
back and forth in the direction the wave is traveling.
In secondary waves the particles move at a right
angle to the direction of the waves. These are
transverse waves.

Differences between P and S Waves

S waves can only travel through solids. Gases

and liquids cannot support shear stress.
P waves can travel though any medium.
P waves travel faster than S waves in any solid
material and because of this they arrive first at
seismic stations. These differences allow
Seismologists to find out the source of
earthquakes and find out Earth's internal
structure.

Speed of Body Waves

The speed of body waves depends on the

density of the medium that it is running though.
These densities increase with depth. Because
of this the waves are curved or refracted. The
waves are also refracted when they cross a
boundary between different mediums.
The fact that S waves can't travel through
liquids gives Seismologists an idea about the
structure of Earth's interior.

Earth's Interior

From those indirect observations scientists believe

that the earth is made up of four regions. The crust,
the mantle, the outer core and the inner core.
The density of the inner and outer cores shows that
earth may have a metallic composition. It is believed
to be nickel and chiefly iron (85%).
The outer core is believed to be 1390 miles thick
and liquid. The inner core is believed to be a solid
ball with a radius of around 763 miles.

Earth's Interior (cont.)

Around the outer core is the mantel, which is

around 1800 miles thick. The mantle is divided into
two parts the upper mantle and the lower mantle.
The temperature of the rock is near the melting
point in the upper mantle. The molten rock that is
expelled by volcanoes come from the upper
mantle.
The lower mantle contains rocks at high
temperatures and high pressures.

Earth's Interior (cont.)

The rocky, thin, outer layer of the mantle that

we all live on is called the crust. It varies in
thickness from about 3 to 7 miles beneath the
ocean basins to about 12 to 25 miles.
The core represents 55% of the Earth's radius,
the mantle around 45% and the crust about 1%.

Zones of the Earth

The lithosphere, which is comprised of the upper

mantle and the crust, extends to a depth of about 43
miles and includes a thin part of the upper mantle
and the whole crust.
The asthenosphere is the part that lies beneath the
lithosphere. It is essentially solid rock, but it is so
close to it's melting temperature that it is relatively
plastic and contains pockets of small molten rock. It
extends to a depth of 434 miles below the Earth's
Surface.

Continental Drift and Seafloor

Spreading

In the early 1900s, a German meteorologist and

geophysicist named Alfred Wegener revived the
idea of plates and their movement and compiled
geological evidence supporting the model known as
continental drift.
Wegener hypothesized that all of the continents
were once part of a giant, single continent that he
called Pangea. He assumed that the continent rifted
apart about 200 million years ago and became the 7
continents that we know today.

Continental Drift (cont.)

There are three pieces of prominent evidence that supports

his claims.

There are similarities in fossils and biological species that were

found on distant continents that are separated by oceans that
strongly suggest that the continents were formed into Pangea
long ago.

The shapes of the continents strangely interlock similar to a

jigsaw puzzle. When the pieces, the continents, are put together
they fit and form one land mass.

There is evidence that the southern parts of South America,

Africa, india and Austrailia were covered in a glacial ice sheet.
Similar to Antarctica.

Seafloor Spreading

Harry H. Hess, an American geologist, discovered the

mechanism behind continental drift in 1960. At that
time geologists knew that a mid-ocean ridge system
stretched throughout the major oceans of the world.
The Mid-Atlantic ridge runs between the continents in
the center of the Atlantic ocean. The East Pacific Rise
runs along the Pacific ocean floor west of North
American and South America.
The lowest places on the earth's surface are called
deep-sea trenches.

Seafloor Spreading (cont.)

In the theory of seafloor spreading the seafloor

slowly spreads and moves sideways away from
the mid-ocean ridges. Then Molten rock wells
up the gap to cool and create new seafloor
rock. When the seafloor moves to the deep sea
trenches it goes back down into the mantle to
melt. This is a continuous process.

Plate Tectonics

The lithosphere is viewed as a series of solid

segments called plates. These plates are
constantly interacting with each other in a very
slow motion. The surface Is the globe is
sectioned into about 20 plates.

Earthquakes

An earthquake is a release of energy after a

repositioning of underground rock and is
manifested by the vibrating and vigorous
movement of the Earth's surface.
Earthquakes can be caused by violent volcanic
eruptions or explosions caused by humans.
The bulk are associated with the plate
movements in the lithosphere.

Earthquakes

The plate movements in the lithosphere form faults, or when the

rock on one side of the fracture moved relative to the rock on the
other side of the fracture. The place with the most movement are
plate boundaries. The major earthquakes follow the faults in
these regions.
Movement of plates near each other exert force on the rock
formations along the plate margins. Energy in the rocks are
stored until they have enough to overcome the force of friction.
Then the energy of the stressed rocks is released, causing an
earthquake.
After a major earthquake there may be aftershocks, or additional
vibrations.

Earthquakes (cont.)

The point of the initial energy from an

earthquake is called it's focus. A focus can be
from a depth of a few miles to several hundred
miles.
The geologists find the location on the Earth's
surface due to the epicenter. The epicenter is
the point on the surface that takes the brunt of
the earthquake.

Earthquakes (cont.)

The energy released at the focus of an

earthquake move outward as seismic waves.
The seismic waves are monitored by
seismographs. The greater the energy of an
earthquake the greater the amplitude on the
traces on a seismogram.
Earthquakes are classified into different scales.
The most common scale used to measure
earthquakes is the Richter scale.

Richter Scale

Charles Richter of the California Institute of

Technology developed the Richter scale in 1935. It
has magnitudes expressed by whole numbers and
decimals. They are usually between 3 and 9.
Each whole number represents about 31 times more
energy than the last.
Damage caused by earthquakes is not only
dependent on the magnitude of the quake, but also on
the location of the focus and epicenter and the
environment of that particular region.

Earthquake Damage

Earthquake damage can indirectly with

landslides, subsidence or directly from
vibrational tremors.
Tsunamis are huge waves generated when the
energy release of a quake happens under in
the area or under the ocean floor.

Crustal Deformation

The two types of gradual structural deformations

are faulting and folding.
Faulting starts with fracturing. Fractures are
cracks in rock due to stress. Faults are fractures
that show that one side of the fracture has
moved relative to the other side.
Folding happens when extreme pressure is
exerted on the Earth's crust. Rock can be
compressed a certain amount before it folds.

Types of Faults

There are three types of faults. They are

normal, reverse, and transform.