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Plate Tectonics 122447

The document summarizes key concepts of plate tectonics including: - The lithosphere is broken into plates that move due to convection currents in the mantle. - There are three types of plate boundaries - convergent, divergent, and transform - that are associated with earthquakes and volcanoes. - Plate tectonics has shaped features on Earth over geologic time through processes like mountain building and seafloor spreading.

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30 views12 pages

Plate Tectonics 122447

The document summarizes key concepts of plate tectonics including: - The lithosphere is broken into plates that move due to convection currents in the mantle. - There are three types of plate boundaries - convergent, divergent, and transform - that are associated with earthquakes and volcanoes. - Plate tectonics has shaped features on Earth over geologic time through processes like mountain building and seafloor spreading.

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mkwa811
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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UNIVERSITY OF ENERGY AND NATURAL

RESOURCES
DEPARTMET OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

GROUP: ONE
COURSE CODE: PENG 151
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
At the end of this presentation, we will be able to briefly;
* Describe the Earth’s layers, plate tectonic movement and
forces driving plate movement
* Describe plate boundary and its types
* Explain the results of plate tectonic movement
PLATE TECTONICS
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that
describe the constant motion and
interaction of the large, rigid plates that
makes up the earths outermost layer,
the lithosphere.
TECTONIC PLATES
The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of the planet (the crust and
upper mantle), is broken into layers called tectonic plates. A plate is a large, mobile
slab of rock that is part of the earth’s surface called the lithosphere. On Earth, there
are seven major and many minor plates. The seven major plates are Pacific plate,
North American plate, Eurasian plate, African plate, Antarctic plate, Indo-Australia
plate and South American plate.
PLATE TECTONIC MOVEMENT
The plates move slowly, at a
constant motion at rates ranging
from less than 1 to 16 centimeters
per year(as fast as fingernails grow).
The movement of these tectonic
plates is likely caused by convention
currents in the molten rock in the
earth’s mantle below the crust.
Earthquakes and volcanoes are the
short-term results of this tectonic
movement. The long-term result of
plate tectonics is the movement of
entire continents over millions of
years.
PLATE MOVEMENT OVER GEOLOGIC TIME
* Alfred Wegener proposed that all the continents once formed a ‘supercontinent’
called Pangaea.
* From Greek language, ‘pan’ means ALL and ‘gaea’ means EARTH. It was thought
to have come together and formed approximately 200 million years ago.
* The realization that the earth’s land masses are in constant motion was first
proposed by Alfred Wegener which he called continental drift.
* Evidence for a supercontinent include;
- Fossils of the same plant (Glossopteris) found in Australia, India, Antarctica, and
South America.
- Fossils of the same reptile (Mesosaurus) found in Africa and South America. This
animal could not have swum across the existing Atlantic ocean
- Nearly identical rock formations found in the east coast of US and the west coast
of Europe and on the eastern coast of South America and western Africa.
THE PANGAEA
DRIVING FORCES OF PLATE TECTONIC MOVEMENT
The plates can move about because the uppermost mantle (the
asthenosphere) although solid is partially molten and possesses a
physical property called plasticity, allowing the distinct rigid solid
(lithosphere) to ride on the fluid-like (visco-elastic) asthenosphere.

* Thermal Convention in the mantle (heat driven)


* Slab pull (gravitational force in the subduction zones)
* Ridge push (gravitational force at the spreading ridges)
PLATE BOUNDARIES
The location where two plates meet or interact with each other is called a plate
boundary. Plate boundaries are important because they often associated with
earthquakes and volcanoes.
TYPES OF PLATE BOUNDARIES

* Convergent plate boundary (Destructive): Occurs where two plates collide or slide
towards each other to form either a subduction zone (one plate moving underneath
the other) or a continental collision.

* Divergent plate boundary (Constructive): Occurs where two plates slide apart from
each other. Divergent boundary form by sea spreading, allowing the formation of
new ocean basin.

* Transform plate boundary (Conservative): Occurs where two lithospheric plates


slide, or grind past each other along a transform faults, where plates are neither
created nor destroyed.
CREATION AND CHANGE OF LAND FORMS
Plate tectonics cause many of the features that we see on earth today like
volcanoes, earthquakes, folds, mountains eruptions.
* Fault
A fault is a planar rock fracture along which * Fold
movement has occurred. Folds are bends in the rock layers due
- Faults are caused when blocks of crust pulling to rocks being compressed by
apart under the forces of tension (ie normal faults). compressional forces.
- Faults caused by blocks of crust collision under
the forces of compression are called Reverse Faults.
* Volcanoes
Most volcanoes form above subduction zones because as one slab is
subducted or moved under the other, it causes melting, forming
new magma which then rises upward. This is why most volcanoes
are found near plate boundaries.
Volcanoes are constructive because they add new rock, form new
islands and create new land masses. However, they are destructive
when they erupt and change landscape.
* Earthquakes
The tectonics plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck
at their edges due to friction. When the stress on the edge
overcome the friction, there is an earthquake that release energy in
waves that travel through the earth’s crust and causes the shaking
that we feel.
GROUP MEMBERS
1. AMEMAKUSE ROY FAFALI UA2203734
2. EMMANUEL KORANTENG UA2207376
3.ADJEI PRINCESS DARKOWAAH UA2201299
4. STELLA NKRUMAH UA2207140
5. EZEKIEL TETTEY NYAMADE
6. WILLIAM BADZA
7. KWAO MARK TETTEH UA2203017

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