The Structure of the Earth and

Plate Tectonics
 Structure of the Earth

Mantle
• The Earth is made
up of 3 main Outer core
layers: Inner core
– Core
– Mantle
– Crust
Crust
 The Crust
• This is where we live!

• The Earth’s crust is made of:

Continental Crust Oceanic Crust

- thick (10 -70km) -thin (7 km)
- buoyant (less dense - dense (sinks under
than oceanic crust) continental crust)
- mostly old - young
- granite rocks -basalt rocks
How do we know what the Earth is
made of?
• Geophysical surveys: seismic, gravity, magnetics,
electrical, geodesy
– Acquisition: land, air, sea and satellite
– Geological surveys: fieldwork, boreholes, mines
What is Plate Tectonics?
• If you look at a map of the world, you may notice that some of the continents
could fit together like pieces of a puzzle. What could have happened?
Continents on the Move
Continents Over Time
 What are tectonic plates made of?

• Plates are made

of rigid
lithosphere.
The lithosphere is
made up of the
crust and the upper
part of the mantle.
 What lies beneath the tectonic plates?

• Below the
lithosphere
(which makes up
the tectonic
plates) is the
asthenosphere.
 Plate Movement
• “Plates” of lithosphere are moved around by the
underlying hot mantle convection cells
 Plate Tectonics
• The Earth’s crust is divided into 7 major plates
which are moved in various directions.
• This plate motion causes them to collide, pull
apart, or scrape against each other.
• Each type of interaction causes a characteristic set
of Earth structures or “tectonic” features.
• The word, tectonic, refers to the deformation of
the crust as a consequence of plate interaction.
World Plates
Plate Tectonic Theory

Evidence for
Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonic Theory

Evidence for
Plate Tectonics
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
•Alfred Wegener in the early
1900’s proposed the hypothesis
that continents were once joined
together in a single large land
mass he called Pangaea
(meaning “all land” in Greek).

• He proposed that Pangaea had

split apart and the continents had
moved gradually to their present
positions - a process that became
known as continental drift.
CONTINENTAL DRIFT

According to the hypothesis of

continental drift, continents
have moved slowly to their
current locations.
 Wegener’s Evidence for Continental Drift

Continents fit together

like a puzzle….e.g. the
Atlantic coastlines of
Africa and South
America.

The Best fit includes the

continental shelves (the
continental edges under
water.)
Picture from
http://www.sci.csuhayward.edu/~lstrayer/geol2101/2101_Ch19_03.pdf
 Wegener’s Evidence for
Continental Drift

Picture from
http://volcano.und.edu/v
wdocs/vwlessons/plate
_tectonics/part3.html

Fossils of plants and animals of the same

species found on different continents.
 Wegener’s Evidence for
Continental Drift
• Rock sequences (meaning he
looked at the order of rock
layers) in South America,
Africa, India, Antarctica, and
Australia show remarkable
similarities.
• Wegener showed that the
same three layers occur at
each of these places.
•
Picture from
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/plate_tectonics/part4.
html
 Wegener’s Evidence for
Continental Drift
• The same three layers are in the
same order in areas now
separated by oceans.
• Wegener proposed that the rock
layers were made when all the
continents were part of Pangaea.
• He proposed that they formed in
a smaller small joined land mass
that was later broken and drifted
apart.
Picture from
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/plate_tectonics/part4.
html
 Seafloor Spreading
• Harry Hess proposed that
hot, less dense material
below Earth’s crust rises
toward the surface at the
mid-ocean ridges.
• Then, it flows sideways,
carrying the seafloor away
from the ridge in both
directions.

Picture from http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/platetectonics/4.php

 Plate Tectonics Theory
• Both Hess’s discovery and Wegener’s
continental drift theory combined into
what scientists now call the Plate
Tectonic Theory.
• Theory of plate tectonics:
• The Earth’s crust and part of the
upper mantle are broken into
sections, called plates which move
on a plastic-like layer of the mantle.
What happens at tectonic plate
boundaries?
Plates & Boundaries
 Three types of plate boundary
• Divergent

• Convergent

• Transform
 Divergent Boundaries

• Spreading ridges
– As plates move apart new material is erupted to fill
the gap
Age of Oceanic Crust

Courtesy of
www.ngdc.noaa.gov
 Iceland: An example of continental rifting
• Iceland has a divergent plate
boundary running through its
middle
 Convergent Boundaries
• There are three styles of convergent plate
boundaries
– Continent-continent collision
– Continent-oceanic crust collision
– Ocean-ocean collision
 Continent-Continent Collision
• Forms mountains, e.g. European Alps, Himalayas
Himalayas
Continent-Oceanic Crust Collision
• Called SUBDUCTION
Subduction

• Oceanic lithosphere subducts

underneath the continental
lithosphere
• Oceanic lithosphere heats and
dehydrates as it subsides
• The melt rises forming
volcanism
• E.g. The Andes
 Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision
• When two oceanic plates collide, one runs over the other
which causes it to sink into the mantle forming a subduction
zone.
• The subducting plate is bent downward to form a very deep
depression in the ocean floor called a trench.
• The worlds deepest parts of the ocean are found along
trenches.
– E.g. The Mariana Trench is 11 km deep!
 Transform Boundaries
• Where plates slide past each other

Above: View of the San Andreas

transform fault
 Tectonic Plates
How fast are the plates moving?
Plates move 1-10 centimeters per year (≈ rate of fingernail growth).

Fingernail growth plotted: http://jclahr.com/science/earth_science/thumbnail/index.html Modified from USGS Graphics

Volcanoes and Plate
Tectonics…

…what’s the connection?

Pacific Ring of Fire

Volcanism is
mostly
focused at
plate
margins
Volcanoes are formed by:
- Subduction - Rifting - Hotspots
Pacific Ring of Fire

Hotspot
volcanoes
 What are Hotspot Volcanoes?
• Hot mantle plumes breaching the surface in
the middle of a tectonic plate

The Hawaiian island chain are

examples of hotspot volcanoes.
Photo: Tom Pfeiffer / www.volcanodiscovery.com
 The tectonic plate moves over a fixed hotspot
forming a chain of volcanoes.

The volcanoes get younger from one end to the other.

Earthquakes and Plate
Tectonics…

…what’s the connection?

Earthquakes and Plate
Tectonics…

Do earthquakes occur randomly on

earth?
• As with volcanoes, earthquakes are not randomly
distributed over the globe

Figure showing
the distribution of
earthquakes
around the globe

• At the boundaries between plates, friction causes

them to stick together. When built up energy
causes them to break, earthquakes occur.
Where do earthquakes form?

Figure showing the tectonic setting of earthquakes

The Philippine Sea Plate
 Plate Tectonics Summary
• The Earth is made up of 3 main layers (core,
mantle, crust)
• On the surface of the Earth are tectonic plates
that slowly move around the globe
• Plates are made of crust and upper mantle
(lithosphere)
• There are 2 types of plate
• There are 3 types of plate boundaries
• Volcanoes and Earthquakes are closely linked to
the margins of the tectonic plates