Earth Science 9.3 Theory of Plate Tectonics Theory of Plate Tectonics.

Earth Science 9.3 Theory of Plate Tectonics

Theory of Plate Tectonics

Earth’s Moving Plates During the 1960s,

scientists realized that the theory of sea-floor spreading explained the idea of continental drift. It explained how ocean basins could open and close over time.

Canadian geologist J. Wilson came up with a theory that led to a revolution in geology.

Wilson suggested that the lithosphere was broken into several huge pieces, called plates. Deep faults, like cracks in an eggshell, separate the different plates.

Earth’s Moving Plates In the theory of plate

tectonics, Earth’s lithospheric plates move slowly relative to one another, driven by convection currents in the mantle.

Previously scientists had failed to explain how the lithosphere could move. The theory of plate tectonics identified a force that could set Earth’s outer shell in motion.

According to Wilson, convection currents within Earth drive plate motion.

Hot material deep within the mantle moves upward by convection. At the same time, cooler, denser slabs of oceanic lithosphere sink into the mantle

Earth’s Moving Plates Effects of plate motion:

Plate motion averages about 5 centimeters per year; about as fast as your fingernails grow.

The results of plate motion include earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.

Earth’s Moving Plates Effects of plate motion: Interactions among different plates happen along plate

boundaries.

Three types of plate boundaries exist Convergent boundaries Divergent boundaries Transform boundaries

Earth’s Moving Plates Divergent Boundaries: Divergent boundaries are found when two of Earth’s plates

move apart. Oceanic lithosphere is created where divergent boundaries occur and sea-floor spreading happens.

Earth’s Moving Plates Convergent Boundaries: Convergent boundaries happen when two plates move together

towards each other. Lithosphere can be destroyed at convergent boundaries when oceanic lithosphere sinks into the mantle during subduction .

Earth’s Moving Plates

Transform Boundaries: Transform boundaries occur when two plates grind past each

other. Along transform boundaries, lithosphere is neither created nor

lost.


Plates may shrink or grow depending on the locations of the convergent and divergent boundaries.

Slowly over time some plates grow over others, pushing them under through subduction when borders converge. Some plates slowly expand while others shrink due to this.


Divergent Boundaries: Along divergent boundaries,

plates move apart. Because they are the areas where sea-floor spreading begins, divergent boundaries are called spreading centers.

Most divergent boundaries occur along the crests of the mid-ocean ridges. Some spreading-centers occur on land on the continents.

We think of these plate boundaries as constructive plate margins because this is where new oceanic lithosphere is produced.

Divergent Boundaries

When a spreading center forms along land, the process can literally split a continent apart.

The process begins when forces of plate motion begin to stretch the lithosphere. At the same time, plumes of hot rock rise from the mantle.

The rising plumes bend the crust

upward, weakening and fracturing it.

The fractures allow magma to

reach the surface. The result is a new floor of a rift valley

Divergent Boundaries

Examples of rift valleys include the Rhine Valley in Europe and the Great Rift valley in East Africa

The Great rift valley in East Africa may represent the first step in the process of the breakup of Africa. This process may take millions of years

If the sides of the rift valley continue to move apart, the valley could become a narrow sea like the Red Sea shown at right.

Convergent Boundaries

At convergent boundaries, plates collide and interact, producing features including trenches, volcanoes and mountain ranges

Along convergent boundaries, older portions of oceanic plates return to the mantle. As a result, Earth’s total surface remains the same, even though new lithosphere is constantly being added at mid-ocean ridges.

Convergent Boundaries Because lithosphere is

destroyed at convergent boundaries, they are also called “destructive plate margins”.

As two plates slowly converge, the leading edge of one plate is bent downwards, allowing it to slide beneath the other plate. We call this sliding under the other plate subduction.

At destructive plate margins, oceanic crust is subducted into the mantle of the Earth.

Convergent Boundaries

The type of lithosphere involved and the forces acting upon it determine what happens at convergent boundaries.

Convergent boundaries can form: between two pieces of

oceanic lithosphere, between oceanic

lithosphere and continental lithosphere,

and between two pieces of continental lithosphere.

Oceanic-Continental When the leading edge of

continental lithosphere converges with oceanic lithosphere, the less dense continental lithosphere remains floating. The denser oceanic slab sinks into the asthenosphere.

When a descending plate reaches about 100 to 150 kilometers below the Earth, some of the asthenosphere above the descending plate melts.

The newly formed magma, being less dense than the rock mantle, rises. Eventually some of it reaches the surface and becomes volcanic activity.

Oceanic-Continental A continental volcanic

arc is a range of volcanic mountains produced in part by the subduction of oceanic lithosphere.

The volcanoes of the Andes in South America are the product of magma formed during subduction of the Nazca Plate

Everywhere around the world, volcanic activity occurs where these subduction zones occur creating a “ring of fire” along these plate boundaries

Oceanic-Oceanic

When two oceanic slabs converge, one descends beneath the other. This causes volcanic activity similar to what happens in oceanic-continental.

The volcanoes form on the ocean floor instead of on land, however. If this activity continues, it will build a chain of volcanic structures that become islands.

This newly formed land we call a volcanic island arc.

Continental-Continental When oceanic lithosphere

is subducted beneath continental lithosphere, a continental volcanic arc develops along the margin of the continent.

However, if the subduction plate also contains continental lithosphere, the subduction eventually brings two continents together.

The result is a collision between the two continental plates. Since neither sinks below the other, collision results and mountains form.

Continental-Continental Before continents collide

they are separated by an ocean basin. As the continents move toward each other, the sea-floor between them is subducted beneath one of the plates.

When the continents

collide, the collision folds and deforms the sediments along the margin as if they were placed in a giant vice.

A new mountain range forms that is composed of deformed and metamorphosized sedimentary rocks.

Continental-Continental

This kind of collision occurred when India rammed into Asia and produced the Himalayas.

Mountain systems such as the Alps, the Appalachians, and the Urals were formed by such a process.

Transform Fault Boundaries

The third type of plate boundary system is the transform fault boundary. Pieces of lithosphere move past each other horizontally along a transform fault boundary.

At a transform fault boundary, plates grind against each other without destroying or creating lithosphere.

Most transform faults join two sections of mid-ocean ridge. These faults occur about every 100 kilometers along the ridge axis.


Active transfer faults lie between the two offset ridge segments.

The seafloor produced at one ridge axis moves in a direction opposite to that of the seafloor produced at the next ridge segment.

Between the ridge segments, these slabs of oceanic crust are sliding past each other along a transfer fault.


Although most transform faults are located within the ocean basins, a few cut through continental lithosphere.

One example is the San Andreas Fault in California, where the Pacific Plate is moving past the North American Plate.

If this movement continues, the part of California west of the fault zone will become an island someday.

The more immediate concern is the earthquake activity that results from the tension created by this fault.

Earth Science 9.4 Mechanisms of Plate Motion

Mechanisms of Plate Motion


Convection Currents

When you heat your home you notice warm air rises and cool air sinks. This is an example of convection currents.


Convection Currents

A convection current is a continuous flow that occurs in a fluid or gas because of differences in density. Warm material is less dense, so it rises. Cooler material is more dense, so it sinks.


Convection Currents

Convection currents in the mantle of the Earth provide the basic driving forces for plate motion.

The hot but solid rock of the mantle behaves in a plastic way over long periods of geologic time. It can flow very slowly circulating within the Earth.


Convection Currents

The main heat source for mantle convection is the energy released by radioactive isotopes in the mantle, such as uranium, thorium, and potassium.

Another source is heat from the Earth’s core.

Since most of the heat comes from the mantle, a bowl of soup in a microwave oven is a better analogy for this process than a pot on a stove.


Convection Currents

But how does mantle convection produce plate motions?

The plates are simply the top part of the mantle convection currents.

The weakness of the asthenosphere allows the stiff lithosphere to slide across it.


Convection Currents

At the “top” of these convection currents, ocean plates cool and become denser than the mantle rock beneath them.

As a result, an ocean plate will begin to subduct beneath another plate.


Convection Currents

The greater density of the cold ocean plate causes it to sink all the way down to the base of the mantle.

Rock from the lower mantle rises into the upper mantle and reaches the surface at mid-ocean ridges, where new ocean floor is formed.


Convection Currents

This cyclic flow of mantle rock, which may take a half-billion years, is called whole mantle convection.


Convection Currents The sinking of cold ocean

lithosphere directly drives the motions of mantle convection through slab-pull and ridge-push.

In slab-pull, the force of gravity pulls old ocean lithosphere , which is relatively cold and dense, down into the deep mantle.


Convection Currents In ridge-push, the newly

formed lithosphere slides down the sides of the mid-ocean mountains after it emerges from the Earth as undersea lava.

This downward slide is the result of gravity acting on the cool and dense oceanic lithosphere ( the newly created ocean floor).


Convection Currents Acting together, slab-pull

and ridge-push move ocean lithosphere from mid-ocean ridges toward subduction zones and then down into the mantle.


Convection Currents Because Earth is not growing

or shrinking in size, the downward flow of subducted ocean lithosphere must equal the upward flow of rock back up toward the surface.

Scientists are presently debating how this happens.


Convection Currents Some scientists think that

most upwelling of mantle rocks occurs in the form of hot-spot mantle plumes.

A mantle plume is a rising column of hot solid mantle rock.


Convection Currents Other scientists think that

large mantle plumes DO NOT EXIST. They think that rock replaces sinking ocean lithosphere through a slow, broad rise of rock throughout the mantle .

Most scientists think that both processes are involved.

Computer Lab Assignment: Use the internet to research and find the answer to

the following questions: DO NOT COPY CUT OR PASTE Write one paragraph (five full sentences) on each question.

How are plate motions connected with motions in the other parts of the Earth’s mantle?

How are the forces of slab-pull and ridge-push related to plate motions?

Earth Science 9.3 Theory of Plate Tectonics Theory of Plate Tectonics.

Documents

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plates convergent boundaries

transform boundaries

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