University of Diyala

College of Science
Department of Petroleum Geology and Minerals

Geotectonics Lectures

Prepared by:

Prof. Dr. Mundher A. Taha

University of Diyala
College of Science
Department of Petroleum Geology and Minerals
Geotectonics Lectures
Prepared by: Prof. Dr. Mundher A. Taha
 Geotectonics Lectures: Prapered by

Prof. Dr. Mundher A. Taha

Lecture One

Geotectonics: Relating to the form, arrangement, and structure of rock masses of the earth
crust resulting from folding or faulting.

The word geotectonics is derived from two Greek words gê—earth, and tectonicon—to build. It
consequently means literally the science of the Earth’s structure, but such a definition is too
wide since it embraces, in essence, almost, the whole of geology.

Tectonics (from the Late Latin tectonicus from the Greek τεκτονικός, "pertaining to building") is
concerned with the processes which control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust,
and its evolution through time. In particular, it describes:

1- the processes of mountain building, 2- the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of
continents known as cratons, and 3- the ways in which the relatively rigid plates that comprise
the Earth's outer shell interact with each other. Tectonics also provides a framework to
understand the earthquake and volcanic belts which directly affect much of the global
population. Tectonic studies are important for understanding erosion patterns in
geomorphology and as guides for the economic geologist searching for petroleum and metallic
ores.

Plate tectonics

In plate tectonics the outermost part of the earth, the crust and uppermostmantle, act as a
single mechanical layer, the lithosphere. The lithosphere is divided into separate 'plates' that
move relative to each other on the underlying, relatively weak asthenosphere in a process
ultimately driven by the continuous loss of heat from the earth's interior.

Neotectonics

Neotectonics is the study of the motions and deformations of the Earth's crust (geological and
geomorphological processes) that are currentor recent in geological time. The term may also
refer to the motions/deformations in question themselves. The corresponding time frame is
referred to as the neotectonic period. Accordingly, the preceding time is referred to as
palaeotectonic period.

In geologic terms, a plate is a large, rigid slab of solid rock. The word tectonics comes from the
Greek root "to build." Putting these two words together, we get the term plate tectonics, which
University
refer to how the Earth's surfaceofis Diyala
built of plates. The theory of plate tectonics states that the
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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. Before the
advent of plate tectonics, however, some people already believed that the present-day
continents were the fragmented pieces of preexisting larger landmasses ("supercontinents").
The diagrams below show the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea (meaning "all lands" in
Greek), which figured prominently in the theory of continental drift the forerunner to the theory
of plate tectonics.

According to the continental drift theory, the supercontinent Pangaea began to break up about
225-200 million years ago, eventually fragmenting into the continents as we know them today.
Plate tectonics is a relatively new scientific concept, introduced some 30 years ago, but it has
revolutionized our understanding of the dynamic planet upon which we live. The theory has
unified the study of the Earth by drawing together many branches of the earth sciences, from
paleontology (the study of fossils) to seismology (the study of earthquakes). It has provided
explanations to questions that scientists had speculated upon for centuries -- such as why
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in very specific areas around the world, and how and
why great mountain ranges like the Alps and Himalayas formed?.

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Why is the Earth so restless? What causes the ground to shake violently, volcanoes to erupt
with explosive force, and great mountain ranges to rise to incredible heights? Scientists,
philosophers, and theologians have wrestled with questions such as these for centuries. Until
the 1700s, most Europeans thought that a Biblical Flood played a major role in shaping the
Earth's surface. This way of thinking was known as "catastrophism," and geology (the study of
the Earth) was based on the belief that all earthly changes were sudden and caused by a series
of catastrophes. However, by the mid-19th century, catastrophism gave way to
"uniformitarianism," a new way of thinking centered around the "Uniformitarian Principle"
proposed in 1785 by James Hutton, a Scottish geologist. This principle is commonly stated as
follows: The present is the key to the past. Those holding this viewpoint assume that the
geologic forces and processes -- gradual as well as catastrophic -- acting on the Earth today are
the same as those that have acted
University of in the geologic past.
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The layer of the Earth we live on is broken into a dozen or so rigid slabs (called tectonic plates by
geologists) that are moving relative to one another. The belief that continents have not always
been fixed in their present positions was suspected long before the 20th century; this notion
was first suggested as early as 1596 by the Dutch map maker Abraham Ortelius in his work
Thesaurus Geographicus. Ortelius suggested that the Americas were "torn away from Europe
and Africa . . . by earthquakes and floods" and went on to say: "The vestiges of the rupture
reveal themselves, if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully the
coasts of the three [continents]." Ortelius' idea surfaced again in the 19th century. However, it
was not until 1912 that the idea of moving continents was seriously considered as a full-blown
scientific theory -- called Continental Drift --introduced in two articles published by a 32-year-old
German meteorologist named Alfred Lothar Wegener. He contended that, around 200 million
years ago, the supercontinent Pangaea began to split apart. Alexander Du Toit, Professor of
Geology at Johannesburg University and one of Wegener's staunchest supporters, proposed
that Pangaea first broke into two large continental landmasses, Laurasia in the northern
hemisphere and Gondwanaland in the southern hemisphere. Laurasia and Gondwanaland then
continued to break apart into the various smaller continents that exist today.

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In 1858, geographer Antonio Snider-Pellegrini made these two maps showing his version of how
the American and African continents may once have fit together, then later separated. Left: The
formerly joined continents before (avant) their separation. Right: The continents after (aprés) the
separation. (Reproductions of the original maps courtesy of University of California, Berkeley.)

Wegener's theory was based in part on what appeared to him to be the remarkable fit of the
South American and African continents, first noted by Abraham Ortelius three centuries earlier.
Wegener was also intrigued by the occurrences of unusual geologic structures and of plant and
animal fossils found on the matching coastlines of South America and Africa, which are now
widely separated by the Atlantic Ocean. He reasoned that it was physically impossible for most
of these organisms to have swum or have been transported across the vast oceans. To him, the
presence of identical fossil species along the coastal parts of Africa and South America was the
most compelling evidence that the two continents were once joined.

In Wegener's mind, the drifting of continents after the break-up of Pangaea explained not only
the matching fossil occurrences but also the evidence of dramatic climate changes on some
continents. For example, the discovery of fossils of tropical plants (in the form of coal deposits)
in Antarctica led to the conclusion that this frozen land previously must have been situated closer
to the equator, in a more temperate climate where lush, swampy vegetation could grow. Other
mismatches of geology and climate included distinctive fossil ferns (Glossopteris) discovered in
now-polar regions, and the occurrence of glacial deposits in present-day arid Africa, such as the
Vaal River valley of South Africa.

The theory of continental drift would become the spark that ignited a new way of viewing the
Earth. But at the time Wegener introduced his theory, the scientific community firmly believed
the continents and oceans to be permanent features on the Earth's surface. Not surprisingly, his
proposal was not well received, even though it seemed to agree with the scientific information
available at the time. A fatal weakness in Wegener's theory was that it could not satisfactorily
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answer the most fundamental question raised by his critics: What kind of forces could be strong
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enough to move such large masses of solid rock over such great distances? Wegener suggested
that the continents simply plowed through the ocean floor, but Harold Jeffreys, a noted English
geophysicist, argued correctly that it was physically impossible for a large mass of solid rock to
plow through the ocean floor without breaking up.

As noted by Snider-Pellegrini and Wegener, the locations of certain fossil plants and animal son
present-day, widely separated continents would form definite patterns (shown by the bands of
colors), if the continents are rejoined.

Undaunted by rejection, Wegener devoted the rest of his life to doggedly pursuing additional
evidence to defend his theory. He froze to death in 1930 during an expedition crossing the
Greenland ice cap, but the controversy he spawned raged on. However, after his death, new
evidence from ocean floor exploration and other studies rekindled interest in Wegener's
theory, ultimately leading to the development of the theory of plate tectonics.

Plate tectonics has proven to be as important to the earth sciences as the discovery of the
structure of the atom was to physics and chemistry and the theory of evolution was to the life
sciences. Even though the theory of plate tectonics is now widely accepted by the scientific
community, aspects of the theory are still being debated today. Ironically, one of the chief
outstanding questions is the one Wegener failed to resolve: What is the nature of the forces
propelling the plates? Scientists also debate how plate tectonics may have operated (if at all)
earlier in the Earth's history and whether similar processes operate, or have ever operated, on
other planets in our solar system.
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 Lecture 2

Inside the Earth

The size of the Earth -- about 12,750 kilometers (km) in diameter-was known by the ancient
Greeks, but it was not until the turn of the 20th century that scientists determined that our
planet is made up of three main layers: crust, mantle, and core. This layered structure can be
compared to that of a boiled egg. The crust, the outermost layer, is rigid and very thin compared
with the other two. Beneath the oceans, the crust varies little in thickness, generally extending
only to about 5 km. The thickness of the crust beneath continents is much more variable but
averages about 30 km; under large mountain ranges, such as the Alps or the Sierra Nevada,
however, the base of the crust can be as deep as 100 km. Like the shell of an egg, the Earth's
crust is brittle and can break.

Cutaway views showing the internal structure of the Earth. Below: This view drawn to scale
demonstrates that the Earth's crust literally is only skin deep. Below right: A view not drawn to
scale to show the Earth's three main layers (crust, mantle, and core) in more detail (see text).

Below the crust is the mantle, a dense, hot layer of semi-solid rock approximately 2,900 km
thick. The mantle, which contains more iron, magnesium, and calcium than the crust, is hotter
and denser because temperature and pressure inside the Earth increase with depth. As a
comparison, the mantle might be thought of as the white of a boiled egg. At the center of the
Earth lies the core, which is nearly twice as dense as the mantle because its composition is
metallic (iron-nickel alloy) rather than stony. Unlike the yolk of an egg, however, the Earth's
core is actually made up of two distinct parts: a 2,200 km-thick liquid outer core and a 1,250 km-
thick solid inner core. As the Earth rotates, the liquid outer core spins, creating the Earth's
magnetic field.
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Not surprisingly, the Earth's internal structure influences plate tectonics. The upper part of the
mantle is cooler and more rigid than the deep mantle; in many ways, it behaves like the
overlying crust. Together they form a rigid layer of rock called the lithosphere (from lithos,
Greek for stone). The lithosphere tends to be thinnest under the oceans and in volcanically
active continental areas, such as the Western United States. Averaging at least 80 km in
thickness over much of the Earth, the lithosphere has been broken up into the moving plates
that contain the world's continents and oceans. Scientists believe that below the lithosphere is a
relatively narrow, mobile zone in the mantle called the asthenosphere (from asthenes, Greek for
weak). This zone is composed of hot, semi-solid material, which can soften and flow after being
subjected to high temperature and pressure over geologic time. The rigid lithosphere is thought
to "float" or move about on the slowly flowing asthenosphere.

What is a tectonic plate?

A tectonic plate (also called lithospheric plate) is a massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock,
generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. Plate size can vary greatly,
from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across; the Pacific and Antarctic Plates are
among the largest. Plate thickness also varies greatly, ranging from less than 15 km for young
oceanic lithosphere to about 200 km or more for ancient continental lithosphere (for example,
the interior parts of North and South America).

How do these massive slabs of solid rock float despite their tremendous weight? The answer lies
in the composition of the rocks. Continental crust is composed of granitic rocks which are made
up of relatively lightweight minerals such as quartz and feldspar. By contrast, oceanic crust is
composed of basaltic rocks, which are much denser and heavier. The variations in plate
thickness are nature's way of partly compensating for the imbalance in the weight and density
of the two types of crust. Because continental rocks are much lighter, the crust under the
continents is much thicker (as much as 100 km) whereas the crust under the oceans is generally
only about 5 km thick. Like icebergs, only the tips of which are visible above water, continents
have deep "roots" to support their elevations. Most of the boundaries between individual plates
cannot be seen, because they are hidden beneath the oceans. Yet oceanic plate boundaries can
be mapped accurately from outer space by measurements from GEOSAT satellites. Earthquake
and volcanic activity is concentrated near these boundaries. Tectonic plates probably developed
very early in the Earth's 4.6-billion-year history, and they have been drifting about on the
surface ever since-like slow-moving bumper cars repeatedly clustering together and then
separating.

Like many features on the Earth's surface, plates change over time. Those composed partly or
entirely of oceanic lithosphere can sink under another plate, usually a lighter, mostly continental
plate, and eventually disappear completely. This process is happening now off the coast of
Oregon and Washington. The small Juan de Fuca Plate, a remnant of the formerly much larger
oceanic Farallon Plate, will someday be entirely consumed as it continues to sink beneath the
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North American Plate.
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These four diagrams illustrate the shrinking of the formerly very large Farallon Plate, as it was
progressively consumed beneath the North American and Caribbean Plates, leaving only the
present-day Juan de Fuca, Rivera, and Cocos Plates as small remnants (see text). Large solid
arrows show the present-day sense of relative movement between the Pacific and North
American Plates. (Modified from USGS Professional Paper 1515).

Alfred Lothar Wegener: Moving continents

Perhaps Alfred Wegener's greatest contribution to the scientific world was his ability to weave
seemingly dissimilar, unrelated facts into a theory, which was remarkably visionary for the time.
Wegener was one of the first to realize that an understanding of how the Earth works required
input and knowledgeUniversity
from all theofearth
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Wegener's scientific vision sharpened in 1914 as he was recuperating in a military hospital from
an injury suffered as a German soldier during World War I. While bed-ridden, he had ample time
to develop an idea that had intrigued him for years. Like others before him, Wegener had been
struck by the remarkable fit of the coastlines of South America and Africa. But, unlike the others,
to support his theory Wegener sought out many other lines of geologic and paleontologic
evidence that these two continents were once joined. During his long convalescence, Wegener
was able to fully develop his ideas into the Theory of Continental Drift, detailed in a book titled
Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (in German, The Origin of Continents and Oceans)
published in 1915.

Wegener obtained his doctorate in planetary astronomy in 1905 but soon became interested in
meteorology; during his lifetime, he participated in several meteorologic expeditions to
Greenland. Tenacious by nature, Wegener spent much of his adult life vigorously defending his
theory of continental drift, which was severely attacked from the start and never gained
acceptance in his lifetime. Despite overwhelming criticism from most leading geologists, who
regarded him as a mere meteorologist and outsider meddling in their field, Wegener did not
back down but worked even harder to strengthen his theory.

A couple of years before his death, Wegener finally achieved one of his lifetime goals: an
academic position. After a long but unsuccessful search for a university position in his native
Germany, he accepted a professorship at the University of Graz in Austria. Wegener's frustration
and long delay in gaining a university post perhaps stemmed from his broad scientific interests.

Ironically, shortly after achieving his academic goal, Wegener died on a meteorologic expedition
to Greenland. Georgi had asked Wegener to coordinate an expedition to establish a winter
weather station to study the jet stream (storm track) in the upper atmosphere. Wegener
reluctantly agreed. After many delays due to severe weather, Wegener and 14 others set out for
the winter station in September of 1930 with 15 sledges and 4,000 pounds of supplies. The
extreme cold turned back all but one of the 13 Greenlanders, but Wegener was determined to
push on to the station, where he knew the supplies were desperately needed by Georgi and the
other researchers. Travelling under frigid conditions, with temperatures as low as minus 54 °C,
Wegener reached the station five weeks later. Wanting to return home as soon as possible, he
insisted upon starting back to the base camp the very next morning. But he never made it; his
body was found the next summer.

Wegener was still an energetic, brilliant researcher when he died at the age of 50. A year before
his untimely death, the fourth revised edition (1929) of his classic book was published; in this
edition, he had already made the significant observation that shallower oceans were
geologically younger. Had he not died in 1930, Wegener doubtless would have pounced upon
the new Atlantic bathymetric data just acquired by the German research vessel Meteor in the
late 1920s. These data showed the existence of a central valley along much of the crest of the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Given his fertile mind, Wegener just possibly might have recognized the
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shallow Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a geologically young feature resulting from thermal expansion,
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and the central valley as a rift valley resulting from stretching of the oceanic crust. From
stretched, young crust in the middle of the ocean to seafloor spreading and plate tectonics
would have been short mental leaps for a big thinker like Wegener. This conjectural scenario by
Dr. Peter R. Vogt (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.), an acknowledged expert
on plate tectonics, implies that "Wegener probably would have been part of the plate-tectonics
revolution, if not the actual instigator, had he lived longer." In any case, many of Wegener's
ideas clearly served as the catalyst and framework for the development of the theory of plate
tectonics three decades later.

Polar dinosaurs in Australia?

As a meteorologist, Alfred Wegener was fascinated by questions such as: Why do coal deposits,
a relic of lush ancient forests, occur in the icy barrenness of Antarctica? And why are glacial
deposits found in now sweltering tropical Africa? Wegener reasoned that such anomalies could
be explained if these two present-day continents -- together with South America, India, and
Australia -- originally were part of a supercontinent that extended from the equator to the South
Pole and encompassed a wide range of climatic and geologic environments. The break-up of
Pangaea and subsequent movement of the individual continents to their present positions
formed the basis for Wegener's continental drift theory. Recently, paleontologists (specialists in
studies of fossils) have carefully studied some well-preserved dinosaur remains unearthed at
Dinosaur Cove, at the southeastern tip of mainland Australia. Dinosaurs found in most other
parts of the world are believed to have lived in temperate or tropical regions, but these
Australian species, popularly called "polar" dinosaurs seemed well adapted to cooler
temperature conditions. They apparently had keen night vision and were warm-blooded,
enabling them to forage for food during long winter nights, at freezing or sub-freezing
temperatures.

The last of the dinosaurs became extinct during a period of sharp global cooling toward the end
of the Cretaceous period (about 65 million years ago). One current theory contends that the
impact of one or more large comets or asteroids was responsible for the cooling trend ("impact
winter") that killed off the dinosaurs; another theory attributes the sudden cooling to global
climate change brought on by a series of huge volcanic eruptions over a short period of time
("volcanic winter"). The discovery of the polar dinosaurs clearly suggests that they survived the
volcanic winter that apparently killed other dinosaur species. This then raises an intriguing
question: Why did they become extinct if they were well adapted to a cold climate?
Paleontologists do not have the answers. Regardless, this recently acquired paleontologic
evidence convincingly demonstrates that Australia has drifted north toward the equator during
the past 100 million years. At the time when the Australian polar dinosaurs thrived, their habitat
was much farther south, well within the Antarctic Circle.

In 1991, paleontologists discovered the Cryolophosaurus ellioti, a previously unknown dinosaur

species and the only one found on the continent of Antarctica. Cryolophosaurus fossils were
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found at Mount Kirkpatrick, located only 600 km from the present-day South Pole. This newly
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discovered carnivorous dinosaur probably was similar in appearance to the Allosaurus (see
artwork above), except for a distinctive bony crest on its head, another meat-eating species
found at Dinosaur Cove, Australia. Studies show that the Cryolophosaurus lived about 200
millions years ago, when Antarctica was still part of Gondwana and had a climate similar to that
of Pacific Northwest--mild enough to support large plant-eating animal life, upon which the
Cryolophosaurus preyed. With the break-up of Gondwana, Allosaurus and Cryolophosaurus
parted company, as Australia drifted northward toward the equator and Antarctica drifted
southward to the South Pole.

Had the Australian polar dinosaurs and the Cryolophosaurus been discovered while he was alive,
the embattled Alfred Wegener would have been delighted!

Approximately 100 million years ago, the Dinosaur Cove area (small red outlined boxes) at the
southern end of Australia was well within the Antarctic Circle, more than 40 degrees closer to
the South Pole than it is today.

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Continental drift was hotly debated off and on for decades following Wegener's death before it
was largely dismissed as being eccentric, preposterous, and improbable. However, beginning in
the 1950s, a wealth of new evidence emerged to revive the debate about Wegener's
provocative ideas and their implications. In particular, four major scientific developments
spurred the formulation of the plate-tectonics theory: (1) demonstration of the ruggedness and
youth of the ocean floor; (2) confirmation of repeated reversals of the Earth magnetic field in
the geologic past; (3) emergence of the seafloor-spreading hypothesis and associated recycling
of oceanic crust; and (4) precise documentation that the world's earthquake and volcanic
activity is concentrated along oceanic trenches and submarine mountain ranges.

Ocean floor mapping

About two thirds of the Earth's surface lies beneath the oceans. Before the 19th century, the
depths of the open ocean were largely a matter of speculation, and most people thought that
the ocean floor was relatively flat and featureless. However, as early as the 16th century, a few
intrepid navigators, by taking soundings with hand lines, found that the open ocean can differ
considerably in depth, showing that the ocean floor was not as flat as generally believed.
Oceanic exploration during the next centuries dramatically improved our knowledge of the
ocean floor. We now know that most of the geologic processes occurring on land are linked,
directly or indirectly, to the dynamics of the ocean floor.

"Modern" measurements of ocean depths greatly increased in the 19th century, when deep-sea
line soundings (bathymetric surveys) were routinely made in the Atlantic and Caribbean. In
1855, a bathymetric chart published by U.S. Navy Lieutenant Matthew Maury revealed the first
evidence of underwater mountains in the central Atlantic (which he called "Middle Ground").
This was later confirmed by survey ships laying the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. Our picture of
the ocean floor greatly sharpened after World War I (1914-18), when echo-sounding devices --
primitive sonar systems -- began to measure ocean depth by recording the time it took for a
sound signal (commonly an electrically generated "ping") from the ship to bounce off the ocean
floor and return. Time graphs of the returned signals revealed that the ocean floor was much
more rugged than previously thought. Such echo-sounding measurements clearly demonstrated
the continuity and roughness of the submarine mountain chain in the central Atlantic (later
called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) suggested by the earlier bathymetric measurements.

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The mid-ocean ridge (shown in red) winds its way between the continents much like the seam
on a baseball.

In 1947, seismologists on the U.S. research ship Atlantis found that the sediment layer on the
floor of the Atlantic was much thinner than originally thought. Scientists had previously believed
that the oceans have existed for at least 4 billion years, so therefore the sediment layer should
have been very thick. Why then was there so little accumulation of sedimentary rock and debris
on the ocean floor? The answer to this question, which came after further exploration, would
prove to be vital to advancing the concept of plate tectonics.

Computer-generated detailed topographic map of a segment of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge. "Warm"

colors (yellow to red) indicate the ridge rising above the seafloor, and the "cool" colors (green to
blue) represent lower elevations. This image (at latitude 9° north) is of a small part of the East
University
Pacific Rise. (Imagery courtesy ofofStacey
Diyala
Tighe, University of Rhode Island.)
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In the 1950s, oceanic exploration greatly expanded. Data gathered by oceanographic surveys
conducted by many nations led to the discovery that a great mountain range on the ocean floor
virtually encircled the Earth. Called the global mid-ocean ridge, this immense submarine
mountain chain -- more than 50,000 kilometers (km) long and, in places, more than 800 km
across -- zig-zags between the continents, winding its way around the globe like the seam on a
baseball. Rising an average of about 4,500 meters(m) above the sea floor, the mid-ocean ridge
overshadows all the mountains in the United States except for Mount McKinley (Denali) in
Alaska (6,194 m). Though hidden beneath the ocean surface, the global mid-ocean ridge system
is the most prominent topographic feature on the surface of our planet.

Magnetic striping and polar reversals

Beginning in the 1950s, scientists, using magnetic instruments (magnetometers) adapted from
airborne devices developed during World War II to detect submarines, began recognizing odd
magnetic variations across the ocean floor. This finding, though unexpected, was not entirely
surprising because it was known that basalt -- the iron-rich, volcanic rock making up the ocean
floor-- contains a strongly magnetic mineral (magnetite Fe3O4,) and can locally distort compass
readings. This distortion was recognized by Icelandic mariners as early as the late 18th century.
More important, because the presence of magnetite gives the basalt measurable magnetic
properties, these newly discovered magnetic variations provided another means to study the
deep ocean floor.

A theoretical model of the formation of magnetic striping. New oceanic crust forming
continuously at the crest of the mid-ocean ridge cools and becomes increasingly older as it
moves away from the ridge crest with seafloor spreading (see text): a. the spreading ridge about
5 million years ago; b. about 2 to 3 million years ago; and c. present-day.

Early in the 20th century, paleomagnetists (those who study the Earth's ancient magnetic field) -
- such as Bernard Brunhes in France (in 1906) and Motonari Matuyama in Japan (in the 1920s) -
- recognized that rocks generally belong to two groups according to their magnetic properties.
One group has so-called normal polarity, characterized by the magnetic minerals in the rock
having the same polarity as that of the Earth's present magnetic field. This would result in the
north end of the rock's "compass needle" pointing toward magnetic north. The other group,
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however, has reversed polarity, indicated by a polarity alignment opposite to that of the Earth's
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present magnetic field. In this case, the north end of the rock's compass needle would point
south. How could this be? This answer lies in the magnetite in volcanic rock. Grains of magnetite
-- behaving like little magnets -- can align themselves with the orientation of the Earth's
magnetic field. When magma (molten rock containing minerals and gases) cools to form solid
volcanic rock, the alignment of the magnetite grains is "locked in," recording the Earth's
magnetic orientation or polarity (normal or reversed) at the time of cooling.

A geomagnetic reversal is a change in a planet's magnetic field such that the positions of
magnetic north and magnetic south are interchanged. The Earth's field has alternated between
periods of normal polarity, in which the direction of the field was the same as the present
direction, and reverse polarity, in which the field was the opposite. Because of changing
temperatures and fluid flows, the strength of the magnetic field varies, and the positions of the
north and south magnetic poles shift. These periods are called chrons. The time spans of chrons
are randomly distributed with most being between 0.1(100,000 years) and 1 million years with
an average of 450,000 years.

University of Diyala
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The center part of the figure -- representing the deep ocean floor with the sea magically removed
shows the magnetic striping (see text) mapped by oceanographic surveys offshore of the Pacific
Northwest. Thin black lines show transform faults (discussed later) that offset the striping.

As more and more of the seafloor was mapped during the 1950s, the magnetic variations turned
out not to be random or isolated occurrences, but instead revealed recognizable patterns. When
these magnetic patterns were mapped over a wide region, the ocean floor showed a zebra-like
pattern. Alternating stripes of magnetically different rock were laid out in rows on either side of
the mid-ocean ridge: one stripe with normal polarity and the adjoining stripe with reversed
polarity. The overall pattern, defined by these alternating bands of normally and reversely
polarized rock, became known as magnetic striping.

Seafloor spreading and recycling of oceanic crust

The discovery of magnetic striping naturally prompted more questions: How does the magnetic
striping pattern form? And why are the stripes symmetrical around the crests of the mid-ocean
ridges? These questions could not be answered without also knowing the significance of these
ridges. In 1961, scientists began to theorize that mid-ocean ridges mark structurally weak zones
where the ocean floor was being ripped in two lengthwise along the ridge crest. New magma
from deep within the Earth rises easily through these weak zones and eventually erupts along
the crest of the ridges to create new oceanic crust. This process, later called seafloor spreading,
operating over many millions of years has built the 50,000 km-long system of mid-ocean ridges.
This hypothesis was supported by several lines of evidence: (1) at or near the crest of the ridge,
the rocks are very young, and they become progressively older away from the ridge crest; (2)
the youngest rocks at the ridge crest always have present-day (normal) polarity; and (3) stripes
of rock parallel to the ridge crest alternated in magnetic polarity (normal-reversed-normal, etc.),
suggesting that the Earth's magnetic field has flip-flopped many times. By explaining both the
zebra like magnetic striping and the construction of the mid-ocean ridge system, the seafloor
spreading hypothesis quickly gained converts and represented another major advance in the
development of the plate-tectonics theory. Furthermore, the oceanic crust now came to be
University
appreciated as a natural of Diyala of the history of the reversals in the Earth's magnetic
"tape recording"
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Additional evidence of seafloor spreading came from an unexpected source: petroleum
exploration. In the years following World War II, continental oil reserves were being depleted
rapidly and the search for offshore oil was on. To conduct offshore exploration, oil companies
built ships equipped with a special drilling rig and the capacity to carry many kilometers of drill
pipe. This basic idea later was adapted in constructing a research vessel, named the Glomar
Challenger, designed specifically for marine geology studies, including the collection of drill-core
samples from the deep ocean floor. In 1968, the vessel embarked on a year-long scientific
expedition, criss-crossing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between South America and Africa and drilling
core samples at specific locations. When the ages of the samples were determined by
paleontologic and isotopic dating studies, they provided the clinching evidence that proved the
seafloor spreading hypothesis.

Above: The Glomar Challenger was the first research vessel specifically designed in the late1960s
for the purpose of drilling into and taking core samples from the deep ocean floor. Below: The
JOIDES Resolution is the deep-sea drilling ship of the 1990s (JOIDES= Joint Oceanographic
Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling). This ship, which carries more than 9,000 m of drill pipe, is
capable of more precise positioning and deeper drilling than the Glomar Challenger.
University
(Photographs courtesy of Ocean of Diyala
Drilling Program, Texas A & M University.)
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Department of Petroleum Geology and Minerals
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A profound consequence of seafloor spreading is that new crust was, and is now, being
continually created along the oceanic ridges. This idea found great favor with some scientists
who claimed that the shifting of the continents can be simply explained by a large increase in
size of the Earth since its formation. However, this so-called "expanding Earth" hypothesis was
unsatisfactory because its supporters could offer no convincing geologic mechanism to produce
such a huge, sudden expansion. Most geologists believe that the Earth has changed little, if at
all, in size since its formation 4.6 billion years ago, raising a key question: how can new crust be
continuously added along the oceanic ridges without increasing the size of the Earth?

This question particularly intrigued Harry H. Hess, a Princeton University geologist and a Naval
Reserve Rear Admiral, and Robert S. Dietz, a scientist with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey
who first coined the term seafloor spreading. Dietz and Hess were among the small handful who
really understood the broad implications of sea floor spreading. If the Earth's crust was
expanding along the oceanic ridges, Hess reasoned, it must be shrinking elsewhere. He
suggested that new oceanic crust continuously spread away from the ridges in a conveyor belt-
like motion. Many millions of years later, the oceanic crust eventually descends into the oceanic
trenches -- very deep, narrow canyons along the rim of the Pacific Ocean basin. According to
Hess, the Atlantic Ocean was expanding while the Pacific Ocean was shrinking. As old oceanic
crust was consumed in the trenches, new magma rose and erupted along the spreading ridges
to form new crust. In effect, the ocean basins were perpetually being "recycled," with the
creation of new crust and the destruction of old oceanic lithosphere occurring simultaneously.
Thus, Hess' ideas neatly explained why the Earth does not get bigger with sea floor spreading,
why there is so little sediment accumulation on the ocean floor, and why oceanic rocks are
much younger than continental rocks.

University of Diyala
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Department of Petroleum Geology and Minerals
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Concentration of earthquakes

During the 20th century, improvements in seismic instrumentation and greater use of
earthquake-recording instruments (seismographs) worldwide enabled scientists to learn that
earthquakes tend to be concentrated in certain areas, most notably along the oceanic trenches
and spreading ridges. By the late 1920s, seismologists were beginning to identify several
prominent earthquake zones parallel to the trenches that typically were inclined 40-60° from
the horizontal and extended several hundred kilometers into the Earth. These zones later
became known as Wadati-Benioff zones, or simply Benioff zones, in honor of the seismologists
who first recognized them, Kiyoo Wadati of Japan and Hugo Benioff of the United States. The
study of global seismicity greatly advanced in the 1960s with the establishment of the
Worldwide Standardized Seismograph Network (WWSSN) to monitor the compliance of the
1963 treaty banning above-ground testing of nuclear weapons. The much-improved data from
the WWSSN instruments allowed seismologists to map precisely the zones of earthquake
concentration worldwide.

As early as the 1920s, scientists noted that earthquakes are concentrated in very specific narrow
zones (see text). In 1954, French seismologist J.P. Rothé published this map showing the
concentration of earthquakes along the zones indicated by dots and cross-hatched areas.
(Original illustration reproduced with permission of the Royal Society of London.)
University of Diyala
College of Science
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But what was the significance of the connection between earthquakes and oceanic trenches
and ridges? The recognition of such a connection helped confirm the seafloor-spreading
hypothesis by pin-pointing the zones where Hess had predicted oceanic crust is being generated
(along the ridges) and the zones where oceanic lithosphere sinks back into the mantle (beneath
the trenches).

Magnetic stripes and isotopic clocks

Oceanographic exploration in the 1950s led to a much better understanding of the ocean floor.
Among the new findings was the discovery of zebra stripe-like magnetic patterns for the rocks of
the ocean floor. These patterns were unlike any seen for continental rocks. Obviously, the
ocean floor had a story to tell, but what?

In 1962, scientists of the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office prepared a report summarizing
available information on the magnetic stripes mapped for the volcanic rocks making up the
ocean floor. After digesting the data in this report, along with other information, two young
British geologists, Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews, and also Lawrence Morley of the
Canadian Geological Survey, suspected that the magnetic pattern was no accident. In 1963, they
hypothesized of the Earth's that the magnetic striping was produced by repeated reversals
magnetic field, not as earlier thought, by changes in intensity of the magnetic field or by other
causes. Field reversals had already been demonstrated for magnetic rocks on the continents,
and a logical next step was to see if these continental magnetic reversals might be correlated in
geologic time with the oceanic magnetic striping. About the same time as these exciting
discoveries were being made on the ocean floor, new techniques for determining the geologic
ages of rocks ("dating") were also developing rapidly.

An observed magnetic profile (blue) for the ocean floor across the East Pacific Rise is matched
quite well by a calculated profile (red) based on the Earth's magnetic reversals for the past 4
million years and an assumed constant rate of movement of ocean floor away from a
hypothetical spreading center (bottom). The remarkable similarity of these two profiles provided
one of the clinchingUniversity
arguments inofsupport
Diyalaof the seafloor spreading hypothesis.
College of Science
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A team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists -- geophysicists Allan Cox and Richard Doell, and
isotope geochemist Brent Dalrymple -- reconstructed the history of magnetic reversals for the
past 4 million years using a dating technique based on the isotopes of the chemical elements
potassium and argon. The potassium-argon technique -- like other "isotopic clocks" -- works
because certain elements, such as potassium, contain unstable, parent radioactive isotopes that
decay at a steady rate over geologic time to produce daughter isotopes. The rate of decay is
expressed in terms of an element's "half-life," the time it takes for half of the radioactive
isotope of the element to decay. The decay of the radioactive potassium isotope (potassium-40)
yields a stable daughter isotope (argon-40), which does not decay further. The age of a rock can
be determined ("dated") by measuring the total amount of potassium in the rock, the amount of
the remaining radioactive potassium-40 that has not decayed, and the amount of argon-40.
Potassium is found in common rock-forming minerals, and because the potassium-40 isotope
has a half-life of 1,310 million years, it can be used in dating rocks millions of years old.

Other commonly used isotopic clocks are based on radioactive decay of certain isotopes of the
elements uranium, thorium, strontium, and rubidium. However, it was the potassium-argon
dating method that unlocked the riddle of the magnetic striping on the ocean floor and provided
convincing evidence for the seafloor spreading hypothesis. Cox and his colleagues used this
method to date continental volcanic rocks from around the world. They also measured the
magnetic orientation of these same rocks, allowing them to assign ages to the Earth's recent
magnetic reversals. In 1966, Vine and Matthews -- and also Morley working independently --
compared these known ages of magnetic reversals with the magnetic striping pattern found on
the ocean floor. Assuming that the ocean floor moved away from the spreading center at a rate
of several centimeters per year, they found there was a remarkable correlation between the
ages of the Earth's magnetic reversals and the striping pattern. Following their break-through
discovery, similar studies were repeated for other spreading centers. Eventually, scientists were
able to date and correlate the magnetic striping patterns for nearly all of the ocean floor, parts
of which are as old as 180 million years.

Harry Hammond Hess, a professor of geology at Princeton University, was very influential in
setting the stage for the emerging plate-tectonics theory in the early 1960s. He believed in many
of the observations Wegener used in defending his theory of continental drift, but he had very
different views about large-scale movements of the Earth.

Even while serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Hess was keenly interested in the
geology of the ocean basins. In between taking part in the fighting in the Marianas, Leyte,
Linguayan, and Iwo Jima, Hess -- with the cooperation of his crew -- was able to conduct echo-
sounding surveys in the Pacific while cruising from one battle to the next. Building on the work
of English geologist Arthur Holmes in the 1930s, Hess' research ultimately resulted in a ground-
breaking hypothesis that later would be called seafloor spreading. In 1959, he informally
University of Diyala
presented this hypothesis in a manuscript that was widely circulated. Hess, like Wegener, ran
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into resistance because little ocean-floor data existed for testing his ideas. In 1962, these ideas
were published in a paper titled "History of Ocean Basins," which was one of the most
important contributions in the development of plate tectonics. In this classic paper, Hess
outlined the basics of how seafloor spreading works: molten rock (magma) oozes up from the
Earth's interior along the mid-oceanic ridges, creating new seafloor that spreads away from the
active ridge crest and, eventually, sinks into the deep oceanic trenches.

Hess' concept of a mobile seafloor explained several very puzzling geologic questions. If the
oceans have existed for at least 4 billion years, as most geologists believed, why is there so little
sediment deposited on the ocean floor? Hess reasoned that the sediment has been
accumulating for about 300 million years at most. This interval is approximately the time needed
for the ocean floor to move from the ridge crest to the trenches, where oceanic crust descends
into the trench and is destroyed. Meanwhile, magma is continually rising along the mid-oceanic
ridges, where the "recycling" process is completed by the creation of new oceanic crust. This
recycling of the seafloor also explained why the oldest fossils found on the seafloor are no more
than about 180 million years old. In contrast, marine fossils in rock strata on land -- some of
which are found high in the Himalayas, over 8,500 m above sea level -- can be considerably
older. Most important, however, Hess' ideas also resolved a question that plagued Wegener's
theory of continental drift: how do the continents move? Wegener had a vague notion that the
continents must simply "plow" through the ocean floor, which his critics rightly argued was
physically impossible. With seafloor spreading, the continents did not have to push through the
ocean floor but were carried along as the ocean floor spread from the ridges.

In 1962, Hess was well aware that solid evidence was still lacking to test his hypothesis and to
convince a more receptive but still skeptical scientific community. But the Vine-Matthews
explanation of magnetic striping of the seafloor a year later and additional oceanic exploration
during subsequent years ultimately provided the arguments to confirm Hess' model of seafloor
spreading. The theory was strengthened further when dating studies showed that the seafloor
becomes older with distance away from the ridge crests. Finally, improved seismic data
confirmed that oceanic crust was indeed sinking into the trenches, fully proving Hess'
hypothesis, which was based largely on intuitive geologic reasoning. His basic idea of seafloor
spreading along mid-oceanic ridges has well withstood the test of time.

Hess, who served for years as the head of Princeton's Geology Department, died in 1969. Unlike
Wegener, he was able to see his seafloor-spreading hypothesis largely accepted and confirmed
as knowledge of the ocean floor increased dramatically during his lifetime. Like Wegener, he
was keenly interested in other sciences in addition to geology. In recognition of his enormous
stature worldwide, in 1962 Hess -- best known for his geologic research -- was appointed by
President John F. Kennedy to the prestigious position of Chairman of the Space Science Board of
the National Academy of Sciences. Thus, in addition to being a major force in the development
of plate tectonics, Hess also played a prominent role in designing the nation's space program.
University of Diyala
College of Science
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Exploring the deep ocean floor: Hot springs and strange creatures

The ocean floor is home to many unique communities of plants and animals. Most of these
marine ecosystems are near the water surface, such as the Great Barrier Reef, a 2,000-km-long
coral formation off the northeastern coast of Australia. Coral reefs, like nearly all complex living
communities, depend on solar energy for growth (photosynthesis). The sun's energy, however,
penetrates at most only about 300 m below the surface of the water. The relatively shallow
penetration of solar energy and the sinking of cold, subpolar water combine to make most of
the deep ocean floor a frigid environment with few life forms.

In 1977, scientists discovered hot springs at a depth of 2.5 km, on the Galapagos Rift (spreading
ridge) off the coast of Ecuador. This exciting discovery was not really a surprise. Since the early
1970s, scientists had predicted that hot springs (geothermal vents) should be found at the
active spreading centers along the mid-oceanic ridges, where magma, at temperatures over
1,000 °C, presumably was being erupted to form new oceanic crust. More exciting, because it
was totally unexpected, was the discovery of abundant and unusual sea life -- giant tube worms,
huge clams, and mussels -- that thrived around the hot springs.

View of the first high-temperature vent (380 °C) ever seen by scientists during a dive of the deep-
sea submersible Alvin on the East Pacific Rise (latitude 21° north) in 1979. Such geothermal
vents--called smokers because they resemble chimneys--spew dark, mineral-rich, fluids heated by
contact with the newly formed, still-hot oceanic crust. This photograph shows a black smoker,
but smokers can also be white, grey, or clear depending on the material being ejected.
(Photograph by Dudley Foster from RISE expedition, courtesy of William R. Normark, USGS.)

Since 1977, other hot springs and associated sea life have been found at a number of sites along
the mid-oceanic ridges, many on the East Pacific Rise. The waters around these deep-ocean hot
springs, which can be as hot as 380 °C, are home to a unique ecosystem. Detailed studies have
shown that hydrogen sulfide-oxidizing bacteria, which live symbiotically with the larger
organisms, form the base of this ecosystem's food chain. The hydrogen sulfide (H2S--the gas
that smells like rotten eggs) needed by these bacteria to live is contained in the volcanic gases
that spew out of the hot springs. Most of the sulfur comes from the Earth's interior; a small
portion (less than 15University
percent) isofproduced
Diyala by chemical reaction of the sulfate (SO4) present in
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the sea water. Thus, the energy source that sustains this deep-ocean ecosystem is not sunlight
but rather the energy from chemical reaction (chemosynthesis).

The deep-sea hot-spring environment supports abundant and bizarre sea life, including tube
worms, crabs, giant clams. This hot-spring "neighborhood" is at 13° N along the East Pacific Rise.
(Photograph by Richard A. Lutz, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.)

The manipulator arm of the research submersible Alvin collecting a giant clam from the deep
ocean floor. (Photograph by John M. Edmond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

The size of deep-sea giant clams is evident from the hands of a scientist holding them.
(Photograph by William R. Normark, USGS.)

University of Diyala
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But the story about the source of life-sustaining energy in the deep sea is still unfolding. In the
late 1980s, scientists documented the existence of a dim glow at some of the hot geothermal
vents, which are the targets of current intensive research. The occurrence of "natural" light on
the dark seafloor has great significance, because it implies that photosynthesis may be possible
at deep-sea geothermal vents. Thus, the base of the deep-sea ecosystem's food chain may
comprise both chemosynthetic and, probably in small proportion, photosynthetic bacteria.

A colony of tube worms, some as long as 1.5 m, clustered around an ocean floor hot spring.
(Photograph by Daniel Fornari, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.)

Close-up of spider crab that was observed to be eating tube worms. (Photograph by William R.
Normark, USGS.)

Scientists discovered the hot-springs ecosystems with the help of Alvin, the world's first deep-
sea submersible. Constructed in the early 1960s for the U.S. Navy, Alvin is a three-person, self-
propelling capsule-like submarine nearly eight meters long. In 1975, scientists of Project
FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) used Alvin to dive on a segment of the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge in an attempt to make the first direct observation of seafloor spreading. No
hot springs were observed on this expedition; it was during the next Alvin expedition, the one in
1977 to the Galapagos Rift, that the hot springs and strange creatures were discovered. Since
the advent of Alvin, other manned submersibles have been built and used successfully to
explore the deep ocean floor. Alvin has an operational maximum depth of about 4,000 m, more
University of Diyala
than four times greater than that of the deepest diving military submarine. Shinkai 6500, a
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Japanese research submarine built in 1989, can work at depths down to 6,400 m. The United
States and Japan are developing research submersible systems that will be able to explore the
ocean floor's deepest spot: the 10,920-m Challenger Deep at the southern end of the Marianas
Trench off the Mariana Islands.

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Scientists now have a fairly good understanding of how the plates move and how such
movements relate to earthquake activity. Most movement occurs along narrow zones between
plates where the results of plate-tectonic forces are most evident.

There are four types of plate boundaries:

Divergent boundaries -- where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other.

Convergent boundaries -- where crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another.

Transform boundaries -- where crust is neither produced nor destroyed as the plates slide
horizontally past each other.

Plate boundary zones -- broad belts in which boundaries are not well defined and the effects of
plate interaction are unclear.

Artist's cross section illustrating the main types of plate boundaries (see text); East African Rift
Zone is a good example of a continental rift zone. (Cross section by José F. Vigil from This
Dynamic Planet -- a wall map produced jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Smithsonian
Institution, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.)

Divergent boundaries

Divergent boundaries occur along spreading centers where plates are moving apart and new
crust is created by magma pushing up from the mantle. Picture two giant conveyor belts, facing
each other but slowly moving in opposite directions as they transport newly formed oceanic
crust away from the ridge crest. Perhaps the best known of the divergent boundaries is the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge. This submerged mountain range, which extends from the Arctic Ocean to
beyond the southern tip of Africa, is but one segment of the global mid-ocean ridge system that
encircles the Earth.University
The rate of of spreading
Diyala along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge averages about 2.5
centimeters per year (cm/yr),oforScience
College 25 km in a million years. This rate may seem slow by human
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standards, but because this process has been going on for millions of years, it has resulted in
plate movement of thousands of kilometers. Seafloor spreading over the past 100 to 200 million
years has caused the Atlantic Ocean to grow from a tiny inlet of water between the continents
of Europe, Africa, and the Americas into the vast ocean that exists today.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which splits nearly the entire Atlantic Ocean north to south, is probably
the best-known and most-studied example of a divergent-plate boundary. (Illustration adapted
from the map This Dynamic Planet.)

University of Diyala
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Map showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge splitting Iceland and separating the North American and
Eurasian Plates. The map also shows Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, the Thingvellir area, and
the locations of some of Iceland's active volcanoes (red triangles), including Krafla.

The volcanic country of Iceland, which straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, offers scientists a
natural laboratory for studying on land the processes also occurring along the submerged parts
of a spreading ridge. Iceland is splitting along the spreading center between the North American
and Eurasian Plates, as North America moves westward relative to Eurasia.

The consequences of plate movement are easy to see around Krafla Volcano, in the
northeastern part of Iceland. Here, existing ground cracks have widened and new ones appear
every few months. From 1975 to 1984, numerous episodes of rifting (surface cracking) took
place along the Krafla fissure zone. Some of these rifting events were accompanied by volcanic
activity; the ground would gradually rise 1-2 m before abruptly dropping, signalling an
impending eruption. Between 1975 and 1984, the displacements caused by rifting totalled about
7 m.

Lava fountains (10 m high) spouting from eruptive fissures during the October 1980 eruption of
Krafla Volcano. (Photograph by Gudmundur E. Sigvaldason, Nordic Volcanological Institute,
University of Diyala
Reykjavik, Iceland.) College of Science
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Aerial view of the area around Thingvellir, Iceland, showing a fissure zone (in shadow) that is an
on-land exposure of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Left of the fissure, the North American Plate is
pulling westward away from the Eurasian Plate (right of fissure). This photograph encompasses
the historical tourist area of Thingvellir, the site of Iceland's first parliament, called the Althing,
founded around the year A.D. 930. Large building (upper center) is a hotel for visitors.
(Photograph by Oddur Sigurdsson, National Energy Authority, Iceland.)

In East Africa, spreading processes have already torn Saudi Arabia away from the rest of the
African continent, forming the Red Sea. The actively splitting African Plate and the Arabian
Plate meet in what geologists call a triple junction, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden.
A new spreading center may be developing under Africa along the East African Rift Zone. When
the continental crust stretches beyond its limits, tension cracks begin to appear on the Earth's
surface. Magma rises and squeezes through the widening cracks, sometimes to erupt and form
volcanoes. The rising magma, whether or not it erupts, puts more pressure on the crust to
produce additional fractures and, ultimately, the rift zone.

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Map of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes(red triangles) and the Afar
Triangle (shaded, center) -- a so-called triple junction (or triple point), where three plates are
pulling away from one another: the Arabian Plate, and the two parts of the African Plate (the
Nubian and the Somalian) splitting along the East African Rift Zone.

East Africa may be the site of the Earth's next major ocean. Plate interactions in the region
provide scientists an opportunity to study first hand how the Atlantic may have begun to form
about 200 million years ago. Geologists believe that, if spreading continues, the three plates
that meet at the edge of the present-day African continent will separate completely, allowing
the Indian Ocean to flood the area and making the easternmost corner of Africa (the Horn of
Africa) a large island.

Helicopter view (in February 1994) of the active lava lake within the summit crater of 'Erta 'Ale
(Ethiopia), one of the active volcanoes in the East African Rift Zone. Two helmeted, red-suited
volcanologists -- observing the activity from the crater rim -- provide scale. Red color within the
crater shows where molten lava is breaking through the lava lake's solidified, black crust.
(Photograph by Jacques Durieux, Groupe Volcans Actifs.
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Oldoinyo Lengai, another active volcano in the East African Rift Zone, erupts explosively in 1966.
(Photograph by Gordon Davies, courtesy of Celia Nyamweru, St. Lawrence University, Canton,
New York.)

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Convergent boundaries

The size of the Earth has not changed significantly during the past 600 million years, and very
likely not since shortly after its formation 4.6 billion years ago. The Earth's unchanging size
implies that the crust must be destroyed at about the same rate as it is being created, as Harry
Hess surmised. Such destruction (recycling) of crust takes place along convergent boundaries
where plates are moving toward each other, and sometimes one plate sinks (is subducted)
under another. The location where sinking of a plate occurs is called a subduction zone.

The type of convergence -- called by some a very slow "collision" -- that takes place between
plates depends on the kind of lithosphere involved. Convergence can occur between an oceanic
and a largely continental plate, or between two largely oceanic plates, or between two largely
continental plates.

Oceanic-continental convergence

If by magic we could pull a plug and drain the Pacific Ocean, we would see a most amazing sight
-- a number of long narrow, curving trenches thousands of kilometers long and 8 to 10 km deep
cutting into the ocean floor. Trenches are the deepest parts of the ocean floor and are created
by subduction.

Off the coast of South America along the Peru-Chile trench, the oceanic Nazca Plate is pushing
into and being subducted under the continental part of the South American Plate. In turn, the
overriding South American Plate is being lifted up, creating the towering Andes mountains, the
backbone of the continent. Strong, destructive earthquakes and the rapid uplift of mountain
ranges are common in this region. Even though the Nazca Plate as a whole is sinking smoothly
and continuously into the trench, the deepest part of the subducting plate breaks into smaller
pieces that become locked in place for long periods of time before suddenly moving to generate
large earthquakes. Such earthquakes are often accompanied by uplift of the land by as much as
a few meters.

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The convergence of the Nazca and South American Plates has deformed and pushed up
limestone strata to form towering peaks of the Andes, as seen here in the Pachapaqui mining
area in Peru. (Photograph by George Ericksen, USGS.)

On 9 June 1994, a magnitude-8.3 earthquake struck about 320 km northeast of La Paz, Bolivia,
at a depth of 636 km. This earthquake, within the subduction zone between the Nazca Plate and
the South American Plate, was one of deepest and largest subduction earthquakes recorded in
South America. Fortunately, even though this powerful earthquake was felt as far away as
Minnesota and Toronto, Canada, it caused no major damage because of its great depth.

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Volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin form the so-called Ring of
Fire, a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The trenches are shown in blue-
green. The volcanic island arcs, although not labelled, are parallel to, and always landward of,
the trenches. For example, the island arc associated with the Aleutian Trench is represented by
the long chain of volcanoes that make up the Aleutian Islands.

Oceanic-continental convergence also sustains many of the Earth's active volcanoes, such as
those in the Andes and the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest. The eruptive activity is
clearly associated with subduction, but scientists vigorously debate the possible sources of
magma: Is magma generated by the partial melting of the subducted oceanic slab, or the
overlying continental lithosphere, or both?

Oceanic-oceanic convergence

As with oceanic-continental convergence, when two oceanic plates converge, one is usually
subducted under the other, and in the process a trench is formed. The Marianas Trench
(paralleling the Mariana Islands), for example, marks where the fast-moving Pacific Plate
converges against the slower moving Philippine Plate. The Challenger Deep, at the southern end
of the Marianas Trench, plunges deeper into the Earth's interior (nearly 11,000 m) than Mount
Everest, the world's tallest mountain, rises above sea level (about 8,854 m).

Subduction processes in oceanic-oceanic plate convergence also result in the formation of

volcanoes. Over millions of years, the erupted lava and volcanic debris pile up on the ocean floor
until a submarine volcano rises above sea level to form an island volcano. Such volcanoes are
typically strung out in chains called island arcs. As the name implies, volcanic island arcs, which
closely parallel the trenches, are generally curved. The trenches are the key to understanding
how island arcs such as the Marianas and the Aleutian Islands have formed and why they
experience numerous strong earthquakes. Magmas that form island arcs are produced by the
partial melting of the descending plate and/or the overlying oceanic lithosphere. The
descending plate also provides a source of stress as the two plates interact, leading to frequent
moderate to strong earthquakes.

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Continental-continental convergence

The Himalayan mountain range dramatically demonstrates one of the most visible and
spectacular consequences of plate tectonics. When two continents meet head-on, neither is
subducted because the continental rocks are relatively light and, like two colliding icebergs,
resist downward motion. Instead, the crust tends to buckle and be pushed upward or sideways.
The collision of India into Asia 50 million years ago caused the Eurasian Plate to crumple up and
override the Indian Plate. After the collision, the slow continuous convergence of the two plates
over millions of years pushed up the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to their present heights.
Most of this growth occurred during the past 10 million years. The Himalayas, towering as high
as 8,854 m above sea level, form the highest continental mountains in the world. Moreover, the
neighboring Tibetan Plateau, at an average elevation of about 4,600 m, is higher than all the
peaks in the Alps except for Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, and is well above the summits of most
mountains in the United States.

Above: The collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates has pushed up the Himalayas and
the Tibetan Plateau. Below: Cartoon cross sections showing the meeting of these two plates
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before and after their collision. The reference points (small squares) show the amount of uplift of
an imaginary point in the Earth's crust during this mountain-building process.

The Himalayas: Two continents collide

Among the most dramatic and visible creations of plate-tectonic forces are the lofty Himalayas,
which stretch 2,900 km along the border between India and Tibet. This immense mountain
range began to form between 40 and 50 million years ago, when two large landmasses, India
and Eurasia, driven by plate movement, collided. Because both these continental landmasses
have about the same rock density, one plate could not be subducted under the other. The
pressure of the impinging plates could only be relieved by thrusting skyward, contorting the
collision zone, and forming the jagged Himalayan peaks.

About 225 million years ago, India was a large island still situated off the Australian coast, and a
vast ocean (called Tethys Sea) separated India from the Asian continent. When Pangaea broke
apart about 200 million years ago, India began to forge northward. By studying the history -- and
ultimately the closing-- of the Tethys, scientists have reconstructed India's northward journey.
About 80 million years ago, India was located roughly 6,400 km south of the Asian continent,
moving northward at a rate of about 9 m a century. When India rammed into Asia about 40 to
50 million years ago, its northward advance slowed by about half. The collision and associated
decrease in the rate of plate movement are interpreted to mark the beginning of the rapid uplift

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of the Himalayas.

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The 6,000-km-plus journey of the India landmass (Indian Plate) before its collision with Asia
(Eurasian Plate) about 40 to 50 million years ago (see text). India was once situated well south of
the Equator, near the continent of Australia.

The Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to the north have risen very rapidly. In just 50 million
years, peaks such as Mt. Everest have risen to heights of more than 9 km. The impinging of the
two landmasses has yet to end. The Himalayas continue to rise more than 1 cm a year -- a
growth rate of 10 km in a million years! If that is so, why aren't the Himalayas even higher?
Scientists believe that the Eurasian Plate may now be stretching out rather than thrusting up,
and such stretching would result in some subsidence due to gravity.

Sunset view of towering, snow-capped Mt. Everest, from the village of Lobuche (Solu-khumbu),
Nepal. (Photograph by Gimmy Park Li.)

Fifty kilometers north of Lhasa of

University (the capital of Tibet), scientists found layers of pink sandstone
Diyala
containing grains ofCollege
magneticof Science
minerals (magnetite) that have recorded the pattern of the Earth's
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flip-flopping magnetic field. These sandstones also contain plant and animal fossils that were
deposited when the Tethys Sea periodically flooded the region. The study of these fossils has
revealed not only their geologic age but also the type of environment and climate in which they
formed. For example, such studies indicate that the fossils lived under a relatively mild, wet
environment about 105 million years ago, when Tibet was closer to the equator. Today, Tibet's
climate is much more arid, reflecting the region's uplift and northward shift of nearly 2,000 km.
Fossils found in the sandstone layers offer dramatic evidence of the climate change in the
Tibetan region due to plate movement over the past 100 million years.

At present, the movement of India continues to put enormous pressure on the Asian continent,
and Tibet in turn presses on the landmass to the north that is hemming it in. The net effect of
plate-tectonics forces acting on this geologically complicated region is to squeeze parts of Asia
eastward toward the Pacific Ocean. One serious consequence of these processes is a deadly
"domino" effect: tremendous stresses build up within the Earth's crust, which are relieved
periodically by earthquakes along the numerous faults that scar the landscape. Some of the
world's most destructive earthquakes in history are related to continuing tectonic processes
that began some 50 million years ago when the Indian and Eurasian continents first met.

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Transform boundaries

The zone between two plates sliding horizontally past one another is called a transform-fault
boundary, or simply a transform boundary. The concept of transform faults originated with
Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson, who proposed that these large faults or fracture zones
connect two spreading centers (divergent plate boundaries) or, less commonly, trenches
(convergent plate boundaries). Most transform faults are found on the ocean floor. They
commonly offset the active spreading ridges, producing zig-zag plate margins, and are generally
defined by shallow earthquakes. However, a few occur on land, for example the San Andreas
fault zone in California. This transform fault connects the East Pacific Rise, a divergent boundary
to the south, with the South Gorda -- Juan de Fuca -- Explorer Ridge, another divergent
boundary to the north.

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 A B

A/The Blanco, Mendocino, Murray, and Molokai fracture zones are some of the many fracture
zones (transform faults) that scar the ocean floor and offset ridges (see text). The San Andreas is
one of the few transform faults exposed on land.

B/Aerial view of the San Andreas fault slicing through the Carrizo Plain in the Temblor Range
east of the city of San Luis Obispo. (Photograph by Robert E. Wallace, USGS.)

The San Andreas fault zone, which is about 1,300 km long and in places tens of kilometers wide,
slices through two thirds of the length of California. Along it, the Pacific Plate has been grinding
horizontally past the North American Plate for 10 million years, at an average rate of about 5
cm/yr. Land on the west side of the fault zone (on the Pacific Plate) is moving in a northwesterly
direction relative to the land on the east side of the fault zone (on the North American Plate).

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Each red dot marks an earthquake, Notice how many have occurred in California.They are not
kidding when they talk about the “BIG ONE”

Oceanic fracture zones are ocean-floor valleys that horizontally offset spreading ridges; some of
these zones are hundreds to thousands of kilometers long and as much as 8 km deep. Examples
of these large scars include the Clarion, Molokai, and Pioneer fracture zones in the Northeast
Pacific off the coast of California and Mexico. These zones are presently inactive, but the offsets
of the patterns of magnetic striping provide evidence of their previous transform-fault activity.

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Displacement along the Dead Sea (Levant) transform fault

The Dead Sea (Levant) fault zone, trends roughly S-N for about 1100 km, extending from the
Gulf of Aqaba through Wadi Araba, the Jordan Valley, the Huleh Depression, the Beqa’a Valley
and the Al-Ghab Graben to the Kara Su Valley. Various lines of geological and geophysical
evidence indicate about 105 km of left-lateral displacement along the southern segment of this
fault. Although many studies looked for this amount of displacement in the northern segment,
only about 60 km of displacement has been estimated, distributed between shortening across the
Palmyride fold belt and left-lateral displacement along the Yammouneh, Serghaya and Roum
faults. The other 40-45 km of displacement has been distributed on a hypothetical basis.

The Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system, also sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Rift, is
a series of faults that run from the Maras Triple Junction (a junction with the East Anatolian Fault
in southeastern Turkey) to the northern end of the Red Sea Rift (just offshore of the southern tip
of the Sinai Peninsula). The fault system forms the transform boundary between the African Plate
to the west and the Arabian Plate to the east. It is a zone of left lateral displacement, signifying
the relative motions of the two plates. Both plates are moving in a general north-northeast
direction, but the Arabian Plate is moving faster, resulting in the observed left lateral motions
along the fault of approximately 107 km. A component of extension is also present in the
southern part of the transform, which has contributed to a series of depressions, or pull-apart
basins, forming the Gulf of Aqaba, Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee and Hula basins.
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Plate-boundary zones

Not all plate boundaries are as simple as the main types discussed above. In some regions, the
boundaries are not well defined because the plate-movement deformation occurring there
extends over a broad belt (called a plate-boundary zone). One of these zones marks the
Mediterranean-Alpine region between the Eurasian and African Plates, within which several
smaller fragments of plates (microplates) have been recognized. Because plate-boundary zones
involve at least two large plates and one or more microplates caught up between them, they
tend to have complicated geological structures and earthquake patterns.

Rates of motion

We can measure how fast tectonic plates are moving today, but how do scientists know what
the rates of plate movement have been over geologic time? The oceans hold one of the key
pieces to the puzzle. Because the ocean-floor magnetic striping records the flip-flops in the
Earth's magnetic field, scientists, knowing the approximate duration of the reversal, can
calculate the average rate of plate movement during a given time span. These average rates of
plate separations can range widely. The Arctic Ridge has the slowest rate (less than 2.5 cm/yr),
and the East Pacific Rise near Easter Island, in the South Pacific about 3,400 km west of Chile,
has the fastest rate (more than 15 cm/yr).

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Evidence of past rates of plate movement also can be obtained from geologic mapping studies.
If a rock formation of known age -- with distinctive composition, structure, or fossils -- mapped
on one side of a plate boundary can be matched with the same formation on the other side of
the boundary, then measuring the distance that the formation has been offset can give an
estimate of the average rate of plate motion. This simple but effective technique has been used
to determine the rates of plate motion at divergent boundaries, for example the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge, and transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault.

The three most commonly used space-geodetic techniques -- very long baseline interferometry
(VLBI), satellite laser ranging (SLR), and the Global Positioning System (GPS) -- are based on
technologies developed for military and aerospace research, notably radio astronomy and
satellite tracking.

Among the three techniques, to date the GPS has been the most useful for studying the Earth's
crustal movements. Twenty-one satellites are currently in orbit 20,000 km above the Earth as
part of the NavStar system of the U.S. Department of Defense. These satellites continuously
transmit radio signals back to Earth. To determine its precise position on Earth (longitude,
latitude, elevation), each GPS ground site must simultaneously receive signals from at least four
satellites, recording the exact time and location of each satellite when its signal was received. By
repeatedly measuring distances between specific points, geologists can determine if there has
been active movement along faults or between plates. The separations between GPS sites are
already being measured regularly around the Pacific basin. By monitoring the interaction
between the Pacific Plate and the surrounding, largely continental plates, scientists hope to
learn more about the events building up to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the circum-
Pacific Ring of Fire. Space-geodetic data have already confirmed that the rates and direction of
plate movement, averaged over several years, compare well with rates and direction of plate
movement averaged over millions of years.

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The vast majority of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur near plate boundaries, but there are
some exceptions. For example, the Hawaiian Islands, which are entirely of volcanic origin,
have formed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean more than 3,200 km from the nearest plate
boundary. How do the Hawaiian Islands and other volcanoes that form in the interior of plates fit
into the plate-tectonics picture?

Space Shuttle photograph of the Hawaiian Islands, the southernmost part of the long volcanic
trail of the "Hawaiian hotspot" (see text). Kauai is in the lower right corner (edge) and the Big
Island of Hawaii in the upper left corner. Note the curvature of the Earth (top edge). (Photograph
courtesy of NASA.)

In 1963, J. Tuzo Wilson, the Canadian geophysicist who discovered transform faults, came up
with an ingenious idea that became known as the "hotspot" theory. Wilson noted that in certain
locations around the world, such as Hawaii, volcanism has been active for very long periods of
time. This could only happen, he reasoned, if relatively small, long-lasting, and exceptionally hot
regions -- called hotspots -- existed below the plates that would provide localized sources of high
heat energy (thermal plumes) to sustain volcanism. Specifically, Wilson hypothesized that the
distinctive linear shape of the Hawaiian Island-Emperor Seamounts chain resulted from the
Pacific Plate moving over a deep, stationary hotspot in the mantle, located beneath the present-
day position of the Island of Hawaii. Heat from this hotspot produced a persistent source of
magma by partly melting the overriding Pacific Plate. The magma, which is lighter than the
surrounding solid rock, then rises through the mantle and crust to erupt onto the seafloor, forming
an active seamount. Over time, countless eruptions cause the seamount to grow until it finally
emerges above sea level to form an island volcano. Wilson suggested that continuing plate
movement eventually carries the island beyond the hotspot, cutting it off from the magma source,
and volcanism ceases. As one island volcano becomes extinct, another develops over the hotspot,
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This process of volcano growth and death, over many millions of years, has left a long trail of
volcanic islands and seamounts across the Pacific Ocean floor.

According to Wilson's hotspot theory, the volcanoes of the Hawaiian chain should get
progressively older and become more eroded the farther they travel beyond the hotspot. The
oldest volcanic rocks on Kauai, the northwestern most inhabited Hawaiian island, are about 5.5
million years old and are deeply eroded. By comparison, on the "Big Island" of Hawaii –
southeastern most in the chain and presumably still positioned over the hotspot -- the oldest
exposed rocks are less than 0.7 million years old and new volcanic rock is continually being
formed.

Above: Artist's conception of the movement of the Pacific Plate over the fixed Hawaiian "Hot
Spot," illustrating the formation of the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamount Chain. (Modified
from a drawing provided by Maurice Krafft, Centre de Volcanologie, France). Below: J. Tuzo
Wilson's original diagram (slightly modified), published in 1963, to show his proposed origin of
the Hawaiian Islands. (Reproduced with permission of the Canadian Journal of Physics.)

The possibility that the Hawaiian Islands become younger to the southeast was suspected by the
ancient Hawaiians, long before any scientific studies were done. During their voyages, sea-faring
Hawaiians noticed the differences in erosion, soil formation, and vegetation and recognized that
the islands to the northwest (Niihau and Kauai) were older than those to the southeast (Maui and
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Hawaii).

World map showing the locations of selected prominent hotspots; those labelled are mentioned in
the text. (Modified from the map This Dynamic Planet.)

Although Hawaii is perhaps the best known hotspot, others are thought to exist beneath the
oceans and continents. More than a hundred hotspots beneath the Earth's crust have been active
during the past 10 million years. Most of these are located under plate interiors (for example, the
African Plate), but some occur near diverging plate boundaries. Some are concentrated near the
mid-oceanic ridge system, such as beneath Iceland, the Azores, and the Galapagos Islands.

A few hotspots are thought to exist below the North American Plate. Perhaps the best known is
the hotspot presumed to exist under the continental crust in the region of Yellowstone National
Park in northwestern Wyoming. Here are several calderas (large craters formed by the ground
collapse accompanying explosive volcanism) that were produced by three gigantic eruptions
during the past two million years, the most recent of which occurred about 600,000 years ago.
Ash deposits from these powerful eruptions have been mapped as far away as Iowa, Missouri,
Texas, and even northern Mexico. The thermal energy of the presumed Yellowstone hotspot
fuels more than 10,000 hot pools and springs, geysers (like Old Faithful), and bubbling mudpots
(pools of boiling mud). A large body of magma, capped by a hydrothermal system (a zone of
pressurized steam and hot water), still exists beneath the caldera. Recent surveys demonstrate that
parts of the Yellowstone region rise and fall by as much as 1 cm each year, indicating the area is
still geologically restless. However, these measurable ground movements, which most likely
reflect hydrothermal pressure changes, do not necessarily signal renewed volcanic activity in the
area.

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Snow-capped 4,169-m-high Mauna Loa Volcano, Island of Hawaii, seen from the USGS
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Built by Hawaiian hotspot volcanism, Mauna Loa -- the largest
mountain in the world -- is a classic example of a shield volcano. (Photograph by Robert I.
Tilling, USGS.)

In 1963, Wilson developed a concept crucial to the plate-tectonics theory. He suggested that the
Hawaiian and other volcanic island chains may have formed due to the movement of a plate
over a stationary "hotspot" in the mantle. This hypothesis eliminated an apparent contradiction to
the plate-tectonics theory -- the occurrence of active volcanoes located many thousands of
kilometers from the nearest plate boundary. Hundreds of subsequent studies have proven Wilson
right. However, in the early 1960s, his idea was considered so radical that his "hotspot"
manuscript was rejected by all the major international scientific journals. This manuscript
ultimately was published in 1963 in a relatively obscure publication, the Canadian Journal of
Physics, and became a milestone in plate tectonics.

Another of Wilson's important contributions to the development of the plate-tectonics theory was
published two years later. He proposed that there must be a third type of plate boundary to
connect the oceanic ridges and trenches, which he noted can end abruptly and "transform" into
major faults that slip horizontally. A well-known example of such a transform-fault boundary is
the San Andreas Fault zone. Unlike ridges and trenches, transform faults offset the crust
horizontally, without creating or destroying crust.

Wilson was a professor of geophysics at the University of Toronto from 1946 until 1974, when
he retired from teaching and became the Director of the Ontario Science Centre. He was a
tireless lecturer and traveller until his death in 1993. Like Hess, Wilson was able to see his
concepts of hotspots and transform faults confirmed, as knowledge of the dynamics and
seismicity of the ocean floor increased dramatically. Wilson and other scientists, including
Robert Dietz, Harry Hess, Drummond Matthews, and Frederick Vine, were the principal
architects in the early development of plate tectonics during the mid-1960s -- a theory that is as
vibrant and exciting today as it was when it first began to evolve less than 30 years ago.

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The long trail of the Hawaiian hotspot
Over the past 70 million years, the combined processes of magma formation, volcano eruption
and growth, and continued movement of the Pacific Plate over the stationary Hawaiian "hot-spot"
have left a long trail of volcanoes across the Pacific Ocean floor. The Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor
Seamounts chain extends some 6,000 km from the "Big Island" of Hawaii to the Aleutian
Trench off Alaska. The Hawaiian Islands themselves are a very small part of the chain and are
the youngest islands in the immense, mostly submarine mountain chain composed of more than
80 volcanoes. The length of the Hawaiian Ridge segment alone, from the Big Island northwest to
Midway Island, is about equal to the distance from Washington, D.C. to Denver, Colorado (2,600
km). The amount of lava erupted to form the Hawaiian-Emperor chain is calculated to be at least
750,000 cubic kilometers-more than enough to blanket the entire State of California with a layer
of lava roughly 1.5 km thick.

Map of part of the Pacific basin showing the volcanic trail of the Hawaiian hotspot-- 6,000-km-
long Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamounts chain. (Base map reprinted by permission from World
Ocean Floor by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp, Copyright 1977.)

A sharp bend in the chain indicates that the motion of the Pacific Plate abruptly changed about 43
million years ago, as it took a more westerly turn from its earlier northerly direction. Why the
Pacific Plate changed direction is not known, but the change may be related in some way to the
collision of India into the Asian continent, which began about the same time.

As the Pacific Plate continues to move west-northwest, the Island of Hawaii will be carried
beyond the hotspot by plate motion, setting the stage for the formation of a new volcanic island in
its place. In fact, this process may be under way. Loihi Seamount, an active submarine volcano,
is forming about 35 km off the southern coast of Hawaii. Loihi already has risen about 3 km
above the ocean floor to within 1 km of the ocean surface. According to the hotspot theory,
University
assuming Loihi continues of Diyala
to grow, it will become the next island in the Hawaiian chain. In the
geologic future, LoihiCollege of Science
may eventually become fused with the Island of Hawaii, which itself is
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composed of five volcanoes knitted together-Kohala, Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Mauna Loa, and
Kilauea.

What drives the plates?

From seismic and other geophysical evidence and laboratory experiments, scientists generally
agree with Harry Hess' theory that the plate-driving force is the slow movement of hot, softened
mantle that lies below the rigid plates. This idea was first considered in the 1930s by Arthur
Holmes, the English geologist who later influenced Harry Hess' thinking about seafloor
spreading. Holmes speculated that the circular motion of the mantle carried the continents along
in much the same way as a conveyor belt. However, at the time that Wegener proposed his theory
of continental drift, most scientists still believed the Earth was a solid, motionless body. We now
know better. As J. Tuzo Wilson eloquently stated in 1968, "The earth, instead of appearing as an
inert statue, is a living, mobile thing." Both the Earth's surface and its interior are in motion.
Below the lithospheric plates, at some depth the mantle is partially molten and can flow, albeit
slowly, in response to steady forces applied for long periods of time. Just as a solid metal like
steel, when exposed to heat and pressure, can be softened and take different shapes, so too can
solid rock in the mantle when subjected to heat and pressure in the Earth's interior over millions
of years.

Left: Conceptual drawing of assumed convection cells in the mantle (see text). Below a depth of
about 700 km, the descending slab begins to soften and flow, losing its form.Right: Sketch
showing convection cells commonly seen in boiling water or soup. This analogy, however, does
not take into account the huge differences in the size and the flow rates of these cells.

The mobile rock beneath the rigid plates is believed to be moving in a circular manner somewhat
like a pot of thick soup when heated to boiling. The heated soup rises to the surface, spreads and
begins to cool, and then sinks back to the bottom of the pot where it is reheated and rises again.
This cycle is repeated over and over to generate what scientists call a convection cell or
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convective flow. While convective flow can be observed easily in a pot of boiling soup, the idea
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Prepared by: Prof. Dr. Mundher A. Taha
of such a process stirring up the Earth's interior is much more difficult to grasp. While we know
that convective motion in the Earth is much, much slower than that of boiling soup, many
unanswered questions remain: How many convection cells exist? Where and how do they
originate? What is their structure?

Convection cannot take place without a source of heat. Heat within the Earth comes from two
main sources: radioactive decay and residual heat. Radioactive decay, a spontaneous process
that is the basis of "isotopic clocks" used to date rocks, involves the loss of particles from the
nucleus of an isotope (the parent) to form an isotope of a new element (the daughter). The
radioactive decay of naturally occurring chemical elements -- most notably uranium, thorium,
and potassium -- releases energy in the form of heat, which slowly migrates toward the Earth's
surface. Residual heat is gravitational energy left over from the formation of the Earth -- 4.6
billion years ago -- by the "falling together" and compression of cosmic debris. How and why the
escape of interior heat becomes concentrated in certain regions to form convection cells remains a
mystery.

Until the 1990s, prevailing explanations about what drives plate tectonics have emphasized
mantle convection, and most earth scientists believed that seafloor spreading was the primary
mechanism. Cold, denser material convects downward and hotter, lighter material rises because
of gravity; this movement of material is an essential part of convection. In addition to the
convective forces, some geologists argue that the intrusion of magma into the spreading ridge
provides an additional force (called "ridge push") to propel and maintain plate movement. Thus,
subduction processes are considered to be secondary, a logical but largely passive consequence
of seafloor spreading. In recent years however, the tide has turned. Most scientists now favor the
notion that forces associated with subduction are more important than seafloor spreading.
Professor Seiya Uyeda (Tokai University, Japan), a world-renowned expert in plate tectonics,
concluded in his keynote address at a major scientific conference on subduction processes in June
1994 that "subduction . . . plays a more fundamental role than seafloor spreading in shaping the
earth's surface features" and "running the plate tectonic machinery." The gravity-controlled
sinking of a cold, denser oceanic slab into the subduction zone (called "slab pull") -- dragging
the rest of the plate along with it -- is now considered to be the driving force of plate tectonics.

We know that forces at work deep within the Earth's interior drive plate motion, but we may
never fully understand the details. At present, none of the proposed mechanisms can explain all
the facets of plate movement; because these forces are buried so deeply, no mechanism can be
tested directly and proven beyond reasonable doubt. The fact that the tectonic plates have moved
in the past and are still moving today is beyond dispute, but the details of why and how they
move will continue to challenge scientists far into the future.

University of Diyala
College of Science
Department of Petroleum Geology and Minerals
57
Geotectonics Lectures
Prepared by: Prof. Dr. Mundher A. Taha