Geology 1301

Physical Geology
Module 2 Lecture 2: Plate Tectonics
Dr. Miles Henderson
Module Learning Objectives
• To demonstrate knowledge of this module, students should be able to identify aspects of the
following as measured by the Exam and the discussion board:
• Identify some of the early evidence for continental drift and Alfred Wegener’s role in
promoting this theory
• Identify some of the other models that were used early in the 20th century to understand
global geological features
• Identify aspects of the numerous geological advances made in the middle part of the 20th
century that provided the basis for understanding the mechanisms of plate tectonics and the
evidence that plates have moved and lithosphere is created and destroyed
• List the seven major plates, their extent and direction of motion, and identify the types of
boundaries between them
• Identify the geological processes that take place at divergent and convergent plate
boundaries, and explain why transform faults exist
• Identify how supercontinents form and how they break apart
• Identify the mechanisms for plate movement
Module
Readings
• Earle Chapter 10 Plate Tectonics
 References
• Physical Geology – 2nd Edition by
Steven Earle is used under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.
0 International Licence
.
• Additional images used under the
Fair Use of the 1976 Copyright
Act (17 U.S.C. § 107) for teaching,
research, and study with proper
attribution to the online source

Vertically oriented beds of Limestone in the Las Chacritas River Section in San Juan Argentina.
Photo by M. Henderson.
Introduction
• Plate tectonics is the model or theory that we use to understand how our
planet works.
• More specifically it is a model that explains the origins of continents and oceans,
folded rocks and mountain ranges, igneous and metamorphic rocks, earthquakes
and volcanoes, and continental drift.
• Plate tectonics was first proposed just over 100 years ago but did not
become an accepted part of geology until about 50 years ago.
• It took 50 years for this theory to become accepted for a few reasons. First, it was
a true revolution in thinking about Earth, which was difficult for many established
geologists. Second, there was a political gulf between the main proponent of the
theory Alfred Wegener (from Germany) and the geological establishment of the
day, which was mostly centered in Britain and the United States. Third, the
evidence and understanding of Earth that would have supported plate tectonic
theory simply didn’t exist until the middle of the 20th century.
5
Video
• You may watch the
embedded video here or
return to the course
modules to view through the
YouTube link.
Alfred Wegener The Founder of Plate
Tectonics
• Alfred Wegener (1880-1930)
• German scientist interested in astronomy, geophysics, and meteorology
• In 1911, he and his collogues found matching Permian-aged (~300–250-
million-year-old) terrestrial fossils in various parts of South America, Africa,
India, Antarctica, and Australia
• Wegener concluded that this distribution of fossils could only exist if these
continents were joined together during Permian time
• Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift, though he could not
explain the mechanism driving the motion of the continents Alfred Wegener in the late 1920’s. Photo
from Wikimedia Commons.
• Wegener first published his ideas in 1912 in a short book called Die
Entstehung der Kontinente (The Origin of Continents), and then in 1915 in Die
Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans)
 Continental Drift
• Continental drift hypothesis
• Continents "drifted" to
present positions
• Evidence used in support of
continental drift hypothesis
1. Fit of the continents
2. Fossil evidence
3. Subsurface structural
similarities
4. Matching mountain
ranges GIF from SebM123 via Wikipedia Commons.

5. Paleoclimatic evidence
 1) Fit of the Continents
• Notice that South America fits neatly into the
corner of Africa
• This fit is even better if you include the
shallow underwater shelf which extends
around their coastlines
• The fit of the continents around the Atlantic
By Sir Edward Bullard, F.R.S., J. E. Everett And Africa
A. Gilbert Smith Department of Geodesy and South America
Geophysics at Cambridge in 1965 was some of
early research
• For more reading on the fit of the continents
check out the paper by Bullard et al. linked in
the course module
Image from Wikimedia Commons
2) Fossil Evidence
• Fossil of Mesosaurus, a
freshwater crocodile-like reptile
(between 286 and 258 million
years ago), are found in
Southern Africa and Eastern
South America
• It would have been
physiologically impossible for
Mesosaurus to swim between
the continents Earle Figure 10.2 The distribution of several Permian terrestrial fossils that are present in
various parts of continents that are now separated by oceans. During the Permian, the
• This suggests that South supercontinent Pangea included the supercontinent Gondwana, shown here, along with North
America and Eurasia.
America and Africa were joined
during the Early Permian
2) More Fossil Evidence
• Various kinds of data exist to support the idea that the southern
continents were once joined into a supercontinent some 200 million
years ago
 Subsurface geological structural
similarities
• Geological cross section between Brazil (South America) and Angola
(Africa) showing the similarities in geologic structural features on either
side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Earle Figure 10.3 A cross-section showing the geological similarities between parts of Brazil on the left and Angola (Africa) on the right. The pink layer is a salt deposit, which is now known
to be common in areas of continental rifting. [Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (March 2015) http://www.eia.gov/countries/analysisbriefs/Angola/angola.pdf]
 Continental drift Caledonian
Mountains
• Matching mountain ranges Is le s
s h
• Mountain Ranges of similar age riti
B
are found on either side of the
Appalachian
Atlantic Ocean.
• Ex. Appalachian Mountains
in North America and the
Caledonian Mountains in
northern Europe.
• If these continents are “Fit”
back together, the
Appalachians & Caledonians
form one continuous mountain Map showing the location of mountain ranges in North America and Europe that have similar
range of the same age structural features and age.
Paleoclimatic evidence
• The direction of ice movement on
southern continents is shown below
according to today’s continental
positions
• This data makes little sense if the
continents had not changed position
through geologic time and is
explained by the breakup of a large
continent in the geologic past (now Top: Glacial striations (grooves) in rock
known as Pangea) can be used to determine the direction
of ice movement.
Left: Ice movement directions are
plotted here in their pre-drift
configuration.
 Evidence for glaciation
Glacial activity on the continents results in scraping and grinding of rock at the base of the glacier. This can
result in larger pieces of rock carried out to sea and then dropped into marine sediments (dropstone)

Glacial striations preserved on an exposed Glacial drop stone in laminated marine

rock surface in San Juan Province, Argentina sediments in San Juan Province, Argentina

Photos by M. Henderson.
Debate on mechanism for continent
movement
• Wegner had provided strong evidences to support his theory of
continental drift, he was unable to explain the mechanism responsible for
moving of continents
• Wegner received strong criticism from the scientific community
throughout his career
• It wasn’t until sea floor exploration, started during World War II, provided
key information regarding the mechanism for movement
• With evidence from seafloor bathymetry and paleomagnetism scientists
were able to explain that continents move due to heat flow in the mantle
• Bathymetry is the shape and depth of the ocean floor
• Paleomagnetism is the orientation of individual minerals in a rock relative to
Earth’s magnetic field – like how a compass works
 Seafloor exploration
• Following development of
acoustic depth sounders in
the 1920s
• During and after World War
II there was a well-
organized campaign to
study the oceans
• By 1959, sufficient Earle Figure 10.3.3 Depiction of a ship-borne acoustic depth sounder. The instrument emits a sound (black
arcs) that bounces off the sea floor and returns to the surface (white arcs). The travel time is proportional
bathymetric data had been to the water depth.

collected to produce
detailed maps of all the
oceans
The term "bathymetry" originally referred to the ocean's depth relative to sea level, although it has come to
What is bathymetry?
mean “submarine topography,” or the depths and shapes of underwater terrain.
 Physical features of the ocean floor
• Extensive linear ridges
• Fracture zones
• Deep trenches (up to 11,000 m
deep), most near the continents
• Deep-ocean plains at depths of
5,000 to 6,000 m
• Relatively flat and shallow
continental shelves with depths
under 500m
• Seamounts and chains of seamounts
Earle Figure 10.3.4 Ocean floor bathymetry (and continental topography). Inset (a): the mid-Atlantic
ridge, (b): the Newfoundland continental shelf, (c): the Nazca trench adjacent to South America, and
(d): the Hawaiian Island chain.
 Topographic map of the seafloor

Image from Wikipedia Commons.

Linear ridges
• Extensive linear ridges are common in
the central parts of the ocean basins
• These features are called mid-ocean
ridges, which are underwater
mountain systems formed by the
upwelling of the Earth’s mantle and
eruption of molten rock on the South America Africa
seafloor creating new ocean crust

Schematic of a mid-ocean ridge in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

 Mid-
ocean
ridges
This map provides another
look at modern mid-ocean
ridge locations around the
world
Fracture zones
• A fracture zone is a linear
oceanic feature—often
hundreds, even thousands of
kilometers long—resulting from
the action of offset mid-ocean
ridge axis segments
• Fracture zones run
perpendicular to ridges
• Shown here is a map of the
Juan de Fuca-Gorda Ridge with
the fracture zone showing the
offset along the ridge axis
 Oceanic trenches
• Oceanic trenches are
topographic depressions of
the sea floor, relatively
narrow in width, but very
long
• Formed where oceanic crust
is being subducted beneath
the adjacent tectonic plate
• Shown here is a schematic of
the Atacama Trench off the
cost of Chile and Peru
Continental shelves Odessa

• Shallow and relatively ne nta l shelf

conti
flat portions of the
continents beneath the
ocean are called
continental shelves
• Shown here is the
location of the
continental shelf in the
Gulf of Mexico
 • In 1960, Harold Hess, a widely respected geologist from Princeton

Sea floor
University, advanced a theory with many of the elements that we
now accept as plate tectonics
• This theory was largely based on observations and a map of the
spreading ocean floor compiled by his graduate student Marie Tharp
• Hess proposed that new sea floor was generated from mantle
material at the ocean ridges, and that old sea floor was dragged
down at the ocean trenches and re-incorporated into the mantle

Earle Figure 10.3.8 A representation of Harold Hess’s model for sea-floor spreading and subduction.
Sea floor
• Hess also suggested that the less-dense continental crust did
not descend with oceanic crust into trenches, but that
colliding land masses were thrust up to form mountains.
spreading • Hess’s theory formed the basis for our ideas on sea-floor
spreading and continental drift, but it did not deal with the
concept that the crust is made up of specific plates.

Earle Figure 10.3.8 A representation of Harold Hess’s model for sea-floor spreading and subduction.
Formation of ocean crust
• As mentioned before, Hess proposed new
oceanic crust was created at the mid-ocean
ridges and destroyed at trenches
• This process is now also known to begin with
rifts within the continents that form new
ocean basins
New ocean crust forming

Old ocean crust being destroyed

 • Seafloor spreading suggests that the
tectonic plates are always moving
Evidence • New oceanic crust is being created at the
of seafloor mid oceanic ridges and it subducts in
trenches and is destroyed

spreading • Further evidence of seafloor spreading

and plate movement is provided by:
• Age of the rocks near, around, and
away from the mid-oceanic ridge
• Paleomagnetism the magnetic
orientation of minerals in the seafloor
that provides magnetic stripes
• Earthquakes and volcanoes at the
plate boundaries indicating subduction
 Seafloor spreading
and the age of Old ocean crust

ocean basins
• Seafloor spreading produces new ocean crust
• As this new rock forms and cools it locks in the
magnetic orientation of minerals in the rock
• This orientation records the alignment of
minerals within the rock to the Earth’s New ocean crust
magnetic field when they formed (known as
paleomagnetism)
• Paleomagnetism allows for correlation of
rock units on either side of a mid-ocean
ridge
• Radiometric dating of the seafloor (using
radiogenic isotopes) corroborates the
paleomagnetic record
• We will learn more about radiometric dating in
Module 10
Paleomagnetism
• As the mineral magnetite (Fe3O4) crystallizes from magma, it becomes
magnetized with an orientation parallel to that of Earth’s magnetic field
at that time. This is called remnant magnetism.
• In Paleomagnetism, the study of magnetic field of past, is done with
the help of remnant magnetism of rocks.
• In the early 1950s, Cambridge University geologists started looking at
the remnant magnetism of Phanerozoic volcanic rocks.
• They found that rocks of different ages sampled from the same area
showed quite different apparent magnetic pole positions.
• They initially assumed that this meant that Earth’s magnetic field had,
over time, departed significantly from its present position — which is
close to the geographic pole.
• This deviation results in what we call declination or the angle
between true and magnetic North. Photograph of various forms of
magnetite. From
https://commonminerals.esci.umn.edu/
minerals-h-s/magnetite
Seafloor spreading and
Paleomagnetism

Apparent polar-wandering paths (APWP) for Eurasia and North America from 500 million years ago through today.
The view is from the North Pole (black dot) looking down. The outer circle is the equator. In the diagram to the right
the curve locations have been corrected taking continental drift into account.
Seafloor spreading and
Paleomagnetism
• Since geophysical models of the time suggested that the magnetic
poles did not need to be aligned with the rotational poles researchers
initially thought that their data represented actual movement of the
magnetic poles (which was not true)
• We now know that the magnetic data define movement of
continents, and not of the magnetic poles
• In the 1950s, scientists from the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in
California persuaded the U.S. Coast Guard to include magnetometer
readings on one of their expeditions to study ocean floor topography
 Seafloor spreading and magnetic
reversals
• Magnetic data from the oceans showed
the zebra-like patterns.
• In the beginning it was hard to
understand but later scientists
explained it as the magnetic reversals.

https://earthobservatory.sg/faq-on-earth-sciences/how-do-we-know-age-seafloor https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/stripes.html
Seafloor spreading and Magnetic
Reversals
• Vine-Matthews-Morley showed that the patterns associated with
ridges were related to the magnetic reversals.
• Also, that oceanic crust created from cooling basalt during a normal
event would have polarity aligned with the present magnetic field,
and thus would produce a positive anomaly.
• Whereas oceanic crust created during a reversed event would have
polarity opposite to the present field and thus would produce a
negative magnetic anomaly.
Earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate
boundaries
• The majority of earthquake and volcanic
activity on Earth is associated with plate
boundaries.
• The edges of Pacific plate mark the Ring of
Fire.
• About 90% of the world's earthquakes and 81%
of the world's largest earthquakes occur along
the Ring of Fire.
• This observation supports the subduction of
old oceanic crust into the mantle
• Melting of that plate in the higher heat of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire
the mantle results in the formation of a
volcano on the Earth’s surface
• We will cover it in detail in Modules 6 and 7
Earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate
boundaries

Map of earthquakes in 2016. A total of 16,975 earthquakes are plotted.

 Tectonic plates
• Tectonic plates act as
individual plates that
“float” on the upper
mantle
• Some of the major
tectonic plates are
noted on the United
States Geological
Survey map to the
right
 Hawaii and plate movement
• The long chains of the Hawaiian Islands and
Emperor Seamount chain resulted from hot
spot activity as explained by Wilson (1963)
• Hot spots are long-lived features where Older
upwelling of mantle material occurs in plate
interiors
• As the plate moves through time, the
position of the mantle hot spot stays the You
nge
same forming volcanic islands or seamounts r
(submerged volcanoes) through the tectonic
plate
• This results in the formation of an island or
seamount chain with the youngest volcanic The ages of the Hawaiian Islands and the Emperor Seamounts in relation to the location of the
activity nearest to the location of the mantle Hawaiian mantle plume.
 Pacific plate
movement over
Hawaiian Hotspot

• All the volcanic islands were originated from

the same hot spot, and overlying pacific
plate moved
• As the plate is moving it caries the volcanic
island away from the hot spot
 Plates, Plate Motion, and Plate-Boundary
Processes
• There are seven major
lithospheric plates
• Eurasian
• Pacific
• Indian, Australian
• North American
• South American,
• African
• Antarctic
• There are also numerous
smaller plates
• e.g., Juan de Fuca, Nazca, Scotia,
Philippine, Caribbean, and many
very small plates or sub-plates.
Plate movement
• Plates are in motion and
continually changing in
shape and size
• Several plates include an
entire continent plus a
large area of seafloor
• Rates of motions of the
major plates range from
less than 1 cm/y to over 10
cm/y (plate movement is
about as fast as your
fingernails grow)
• The Pacific Plate is the
fastest at over 10 cm/y in
some areas
• The North American Plate
is one of the slowest
tectonic plates 41
 Plates, Plate Motion, and Plate-Boundary Processes
• There are no gaps between plates
• Tectonic plates consist of lithosphere,
which includes the crust and the
lithospheric (upper) part of the mantle
• Continents and Oceans are not separate
units
• Tectonic plates consist of both
continental and oceanic crust
• Ex. 1: African plate includes African This image shows the thickness of the continental and oceanic crust relative to the upper
Continent and parts of Atlantic Plate mantle. Note that the Earth’s crust “floats” on the upper mantle (lithospheric mantle and
asthenosphere) because of density differences between the continental crust, oceanic crust,
along with parts of Indian Ocean and mantle.

• Ex. 2: the North American Plate includes

most of North America, plus half of the
northern Atlantic Ocean.
Plate
boundary
processes
• There are three types of
plate boundaries
• Divergent (i.e., moving
apart)
• Convergent (i.e.,
moving together)
• Transform (moving
side by side)

This image shows the three main types of plate boundaries: divergent, convergent, and transform. Image courtesy of the U.S.
Geological Survey.
 Plate boundary block diagrams
• Here are block diagrams showing the direction of movement along plate
boundaries
1. divergent (i.e., moving apart)

3. transform (moving side by side)

2. convergent (i.e., moving together)

 Divergent plate boundaries
• Divergent boundaries are
spreading boundaries, where
new oceanic crust is created
from magma derived from
partial melting of the mantle
caused by decompression as hot
mantle rock from depth is moved
toward the surface
• Shown here are the general
processes at divergent plate
boundaries from the rifting
phase to the creation of new
oceanic crust
Divergent plate boundary
• Most divergent plate boundaries are situated along the crests of
oceanic ridges

Oceanic crust

Partial melting

Convection
 Continental rifting
• Stresses acting on the continents result
in the rifting or separation of
continental crust
• Upwelling in the mantle causes the
initial rifting produced and related
stresses break the crust into numerous
large slabs
• As crust is pulled apart the slabs sink to
form a rift valley
• Continued spreading can open a narrow
seaway like that of the modern-day Red
Sea
• Eventually an expansive deep-ocean
basin and oceanic ridge could be
created
 East African Rift
• The East African rift is the best
modern expression of a
continental rift (Divergent
Plate Boundary)
• Given enough time, it will
eventually split Africa into
multiple continental
fragments

Image from Wikipedia

 Convergent plate boundaries
• Convergent boundaries are where two
plates are moving toward each other
and collide
• There are of three types of convergent
boundaries depending on the type of
crust present on either side of the
boundary — oceanic or continental.
• Ocean-ocean
• Ocean-continent Diagram showing a convergent margin with a continent-
continent collision
• Continent-continent
Convergent plate boundary block diagrams

ocean-continent convergence
 Ocean–ocean convergent plate boundary
• At an ocean-ocean convergent boundary one of
the plates subducts under the other.
• The older and colder plate (denser) and subducts
beneath the younger and hotter plate (less
dense)
• This happens because as sea-floor basalt gets
older it cools and becomes denser relative to
younger sea-floor basalts
• There is commonly an ocean trench along the
boundary
• The average angle of subduction of lithosphere into the hot mantle is around 45˚
• Volcanoes on the ocean floor or they emerge as a volcanic island arc
• e.g. Japan, Aleutian islands, Tonga islands
 Ocean–ocean convergent plate boundary
• Volcanoes on the ocean floor or they emerge as a volcanic island arcs

Astronaut photo of ash cloud from Mount Cleveland, Alaska, http://geology.com/volcanoes/cleveland/

USA. Image from NASA.
 Ocean–continent convergent plate
boundary
• Oceanic crust (denser) subducts beneath the
continental crust (less dense)
• The mafic magma produced adjacent to the
subduction zone rises to the base of the
continental crust and leads to partial melting of
the continental crust
• The resulting magma eventually ascends through the crust producing a mountain chain
made of many volcanoes.
• Examples: Subduction of the Nazca Plate under South America (which has created
the Andes Mountain Range) and subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate under North
America (creating the mountains Garibaldi, Baker, St. Helens, Rainier, Hood, and
Shasta, collectively known as the Cascade Range).
Ocean–continent convergent plate
boundary
• Mount St. Helens is a volcano associated with an ocean-continent
plate boundary that erupted in the 1980’s spreading an ash cloud
throughout the northwestern USA

Mount St. Helens, WA

Wikimedia Commons

Juan de Fuca Plate under North America

 Continent–continent convergent plate
boundary
• A continent-continent collision occurs when a
continent or large island that has been moved
along with subducting oceanic crust collides with
another continent
• Neither of the colliding continental plates will
want to subduct because they have equal
densities
• There is tremendous deformation of the pre-existing continental rocks and creation of a
mountains range (Orogeny) from the colliding plates
• Examples: the collision of the India Plate with the Eurasian Plate, creating the Himalaya
Mountains, and the collision of the African Plate with the Eurasian Plate, creating the series
of ranges extending from the Alps in Europe to the Zagros Mountains in Iran

55