Plate Tectonics and the Ocean Floor

Plate Tectonics and

the Ocean Floor

Continental Drift

• Theory proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912• Continents once formed a single landmass

Early Evidence

Age of Oceanic Crust

Courtesy of www.ngdc.noaa.gov

Paleomagnetism

Plate Tectonics – 1960’s

• Explains HOW the plates moved

The Crust

Continental Crust- thick (10-70km)

- buoyant (less dense than oceanic crust) - mostly old

Oceanic Crust- thin (~7 km)- dense (sinks under continental crust)- young

Plate Movement

• “Plates” of lithosphere are moved around by the underlying hot mantle convection cells

• Divergent

• Convergent

• Transform

Three types of plate boundary

• Spreading ridges– As plates move apart new material is erupted to fill

the gap

Divergent Boundaries

Mid-Ocean Ridge• Underwater mountain

ranges• Due to plates pulling

away from each other• A Rift Valley forms in

the middle where magma comes out

• Have many fracture zones which break the ridge up

• Black smoker at a mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vent in the Atlantic.

Close up at the mid-ocean ridge

• Iceland has a divergent plate boundary running through its middle

Iceland: An example of continental rifting

• There are three styles of convergent plate boundaries– Continent-continent collision– Continent-oceanic crust collision– Ocean-ocean collision

Convergent Boundaries

• Forms mountains, e.g. European Alps, Himalayas

Continent-Continent Collision

Himalayas

• Called SUBDUCTION

Continent-Oceanic Crust Collision

TRENCH

• Oceanic lithosphere subducts underneath the continental lithosphere

• Oceanic lithosphere heats and dehydrates as it subsides

• The melt rises forming volcanism

• E.g. The Andes

Subduction

Trenches• Due to one plate

subducting (going below) another plate

• Earthquakes • Many volcanoes and

volcanic island arcs form here

• When two oceanic plates collide, one runs over the other which causes it to sink into the mantle forming a subduction zone.

• The subducting plate is bent downward to form a very deep depression in the ocean floor called a trench.

• The worlds deepest parts of the ocean are found along trenches. – E.g. The Mariana Trench is 11 km deep!

Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision

• Where plates slide past each other

Transform Boundaries

Above: View of the San Andreas transform fault

Volcanism is mostly focused at plate margins

Pacific Ring of Fire

Other Ocean Features

Continental Shelf

• Part of a continent covered by water

• Gentle slope• Average depth is 60

m• Amount exposed

changes with sea level

Continental Slope

• Steep • May be cut by

submarine canyons• Sediment piles up at

the bottom and forms continental rise

Abyssal Plains

• Flattest area on earth• Cover ½ of deep ocean• Covered with fine

sediment

Seamounts

• Submerged volcanic mountains

• Called oceanic island if they rise above water

Guyot

• Seamounts that have been eroded and are now flat on top