Movements of the earth’s surficial layers

On a plate tectonic Earth, the rigid outer layer, the lithosphere, is broken into
fragments that are in independent horizontal motion about axes of rotation (Euler
poles) at a set rate and direction (angular motion).

The plates are made up of continental and oceanic lithospheres with contrasting
chemical–physical properties.
Oceanic lithosphere is thin, dense with low mean elevation (largely submarine), and
with new crust of largely mafic composition, whereas continental lithosphere is
thicker, less dense, has higher mean elevation, and has a crustal component of more
intermediate composition.
The area ratio of oceanic to continental lithosphere is approximately 60 : 40, with
some 75% of the latter presently exposed above sea level.

The movement of the plates results in a linked system (moving away from each other
or colliding with each other or rubbing against each other) forming the divergent,
convergent and strike-slip relative surface motion of rigid plates, with deformation
focused at boundary zones.
Present-day Earth global relief showing distribution of spreading, subduction,
collisional and strike-slip boundaries.
 Geological evidence for plate margin interaction

Convergent boundaries come together

Places where crust is destroyed as one plate
dives under another

Divergent boundaries spread apart

Places where new crust is generated as the
plates pull away from each other
New crust is created from magma pushing up
from the mantle

Transform boundaries slide against each

other
Places where crust is neither produced nor
destroyed as the plates slide horizontally past
each other
 Convergent plate boundary record: Oceanic-Continental Convergence

The oceanic plate subducts under the continental plate because it has higher density.
The oceanic Nazca Plate is being subducted under the continental part of the South
American Plate.
The South American Plate is being lifted up, creating the Andes mountains.
Strong, destructive earthquakes and rapid uplift of mountain ranges are common in
this region.
These earthquakes are often accompanied by uplift of the land by as much as a few
meters.
Mount Saint Helens is along the subduction zone of the Juan de Fuca plate (an oceanic
plate) and the North American plate (a continental plate).
 Convergent plate boundary record: Ocean-ocean Convergence

• When two oceanic plates converge, one

is usually subducted under the other.
• An older oceanic plate is colder, therefore
more dense and less buoyant, and will
subduct under a younger, hotter, less
dense, and more buoyant oceanic plate.
• In the process, a trench is formed.
– The deepest trenches in the oceans
are along oceanic-oceanic
subduction zones (i.e., the Marianas
Trench in the Pacific, which is deeper
than Mt. Everest is high).
• Subduction in oceanic-oceanic plate
convergence can result in the formation
of volcanoes.
• Examples of oceanic-oceanic
convergence are the arcuate chains of
islands in the southwest Pacific, Japan,
and the Aleutian Islands.
 Convergent plate boundary record: Continent-continent Convergence

• 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.
 Convergent plate boundary record: Continent-continent Convergence

• 50 million years ago, the Indian

Plate collided into the Eurasian
Plate.

• After the collision, the slow

continuous convergence of the
two plates over millions of years
pushed up the Himalaya and the
Tibetan Plateau to their present
heights.

• The Himalaya form the highest

continental mountains in the
world.
 Divergent plate boundary record

• Divergent boundaries occur along

spreading centers where plates are
moving apart and new crust is
created by magma pushing up from
the mantle.
• The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a
divergent boundary.
• Sea-floor 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 ocean that exists
today.
Conservative plate boundary record

• The San Andreas Fault is

one of the few transform
faults exposed on land.
– It connects the East Pacific
Rise, a divergent boundary to
the south, with the Juan de
Fuca Ridge, a divergent
boundary to the north.

– Most earthquakes in
California are caused by the
accumulation and release of
strain as the two plates slide
past each other.
 What Are Tectonic Plates?

A plate is a large, rigid slab of

solid rock.
Plates are formed from the
lithosphere: the crust and
the upper part of the
mantle.
The plates “float” on the
slowly flowing asthenosphere:
the lower part of the mantle.
The plates include both the
land and ocean floor.
The Mohoriovicic discontinuity
or Moho is the boundary
between the crust and the
mantle.
 What Drives Plate Tectonics?

The slow movement of hot,

softened mantle lies below rigid
plates.
The hot, softened rock in the
mantle moves in a circular
manner in a convection flow – the
heated, molten rock rises to the
surface, spreads, and begins to
cool, and then sinks back down to
be reheated and rises again.
Movement of the
Plates Over Time
 General considerations of the lithosphere

The Earth’s lithosphere consists of the entire crust (oceanic and continental) and
a portion of the uppermost upper mantle.

Commonly Used Definitions of “Lithosphere”

However, that within the plate tectonics paradigm, there is only one strict definition,
namely the mechanical or rheological definition.
 General considerations of the lithosphere

Thus, the lithosphere represents the Earth’s rigid/strong/viscous outermost shell,

which can sustain and transmit relatively large stresses over geologic time scales. It
forms relatively rigid plates that move over a hotter and rheologically weaker layer
(the asthenosphere) that is characterized by pervasive ductile deformation
(solid-state creep) and multiscale convection.
Now to define the lithosphere the upper boundary is the surface of the crust and
the lower boundary to be delineated is generally the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere
Boundary (LAB).
For the lithospheric plates to float-a rheologically weak material is needed which
can make a rigid body to move over it. Like ship on water. Such weaker material
lowers the seismic waves passing through them and in zones these materials are
present are called as Low Velocity Zones seismically.
Low velocity zones may be caused by the existence of partial melt.

The LVZ is bounded by two interfaces: the top has been named the 8° discontinuity
or the Hales discontinuity and the base corresponds to the upper mantle Lehmann
discontinuity. The available data show that the LVZ appears globally at an
approximately constant depth of 100 ± 20 km in the upper mantle.
Seismic record sections from the FENNOLORA project A) P-wave section, reduced by a velocity of 8.5 km/s; B)
S-wave section reduced by a velocity of 4.91 km/s. Lines illustrate correlated phases, dots show the first
arrival at the scattered arrivals from the upper mantle low velocity zone. The grey areas mark those parts of
the seismogram sections where significant ringing or reverberations occur after the first arrival; these phases
represent strong reflectivity in the mantle low velocity zone.
 Origin of the LVZ
Thus the observations of the global low velocity zone in the upper mantle in a depth
interval below the 8° discontinuity at 100 km depth (±20 km).

1. Rocks in a partially molten state

2. The presence of fluids
3. Change in anisotropy
4. Change in rheology
5. Metamorphic Phase Transformations
6. Changes in composition
7. Remnants of subducted slabs
8. An irregular base of the lithosphere
9. Magmatic intrusions
A) Representative models of seismic velocity versus depth for cold (blue) and
hot (red) areas. B) Representation of the 2D velocity variation in the LVZ that
may explain the scattering of seismic waves. C) Solidus of peridotitic rocks
indicating melting/partial melting.
 Plate tectonics and volcanism

Most volcanoes form at the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates.

At divergent boundaries: Mid-ocean ridges are the most prominent plate boundaries
and the most active volcanic features on Earth. The system will eventually evolve to
full seafloor spreading and generation of oceanic crust and lithosphere.
 Plate tectonics and volcanism
At convergent boundaries: Convergent plate boundaries are defined by the relative
motion of tectonic plates toward each other and can be located in both oceanic and
continental lithosphere.
The subduction of oceanic lithosphere into the mantle will lead to the partial melting
of the subducting slab and the formation of magmas which eventually rise up to the
surface.
Convergence between oceanic-oceanic- gives rise to volcanic mountains called Island
Arcs and oceanic-continental lithosphere gives rise to volcanic mountains called
Continental Arcs

Read the topic: Pacific Ring

of Fire
 Plate tectonics and earthquakes

Observations show that most earthquakes are associated with tectonic plate
boundaries and the theory of plate tectonics can be used to provide a simplified
explanation of the global distribution of earthquakes

Before an earthquake, the buildup of stress in the rocks on either side of a fault
results in gradual deformation. Eventually, this deformation exceeds the frictional
force holding the rocks together and sudden slip occurs along the fault. This
releases the accumulated stress and the rocks on either side of the fault return to
their original shape (elastic rebound) but are offset on either side of the fault. The
whole process releases huge amount of energy and we feel this energy in the form
of earthquakes.

Subduction zones are characterised by seismicity from the surface down to almost
700 km depth, and are often referred to as Wadati–Benioff zones (Benioff, 1949;
Wadati, 1928, 1935). Seismicity is often classified as shallow (0–70 km), intermediate
(70–300 km) and deep (300–700 km).
Life cycles of oceans
 Life cycles of oceans
A Wilson cycle consists of six stages: embryonic, juvenile, mature, declining, terminal,
and suturing. The cycle begins because thick continental crust does not conduct heat
as readily as thinner oceanic crust. A supercontinent that remains in one location for
hundreds of millions of years acts like a blanket, retarding heat flow from Earth’s
interior. This causes the mantle beneath the supercontinent to warm. As the
underlying mantle warms, it expands, elevating the overlying continent and
stretching the continental crust. Convection currents in the mantle also contribute to
this stretching and eventually the crust fractures, forming a rift valley. This is
Wilson’s embryonic stage.
With rifting of the continental crust, the broken sides rise about a kilometer enclosing
a valley that often fills with fresh water. In East Africa, long, deep lakes now occupy
narrow rift valleys. Rift valleys gradually widen and eventually connect to the ocean
and the freshwater lakes become narrow saline gulfs. This is happening now in the
Red Sea and Gulf of California and marks the beginning of Wilson’s juvenile/young
stage.
With continued lateral spreading of the rift valley, the divergent plate boundary
widens and additional oceanic crust is generated signaling the mature stage of the
Wilson cycle. Today, the Atlantic is a mature ocean with geologically passive margins.
 Life cycles of oceans

Subduction becomes more widespread around the border of the ocean basin during
the declining stage of the Wilson cycle .
Following the declining stage of the Wilson cycle, the ocean basin closes through
subduction as continents from opposite sides of the ocean basin bear down on one
another and eventually collide.
These events signal the final two stages of the Wilson cycle: the terminal and
suturing stages. In the terminal stage, the continents are not yet touching but
subduction of the intervening oceanic crust causes a narrowing of the sea separating
the continents.
During the suturing stage, collision of the continents is complete and the intervening
sea is gone.
 Aseismic ridges and hotspots
As the name indicates, aseismic ridges are so called because they lack seismic activity.
Almost all volcanic activity is confined to the margins of the plates. Along the full length of the
mid-ocean ridges there is undersea volcanism in which the lava erupted is predominantly basalt.
At convergent plate boundaries lavas are formed by the melting of lighter constituents of the
subducted plate. The upwelling lava can create an island arc, such as the arcs of the Philippines,
Japan and the Aleutians, or a volcanic mountain system, such as the Andes and the Cascade Range
of the Americas. The lavas associated with convergent plates differ from the basalts of the
midocean ridges. They are called andesite lavas and they contain more silicon, calcium, sodium
and potassium than basalt and less iron and magnesium.
Volcanism that is not associated with plate margins accounts for a small proportion of the world's
volcanic activity, probably much less than 1 percent. It is these few isolated volcanoes that have
been named hot spots.
They are distinguished by their very isolation: in the middle of a rigid lithospheric plate, far from
centers of seismic activity, a hot spot may be the only distinctive feature in an otherwise
monotonous landscape.
 Model questions:

1. How are plate tectonics and volcanoes related?

2. Give a detail account of the different types of plate boundaries.
3. How are plate tectonics and earthquakes related?
4. Give a detail account of Wilson Cycle.
5. How marine magnetic anomalies prove that plate movements do occur?
6. Write a short note on hotspots/aseismic ridges.