Dynamic Earth

Part 1
 Dynamic Crust
 Earth’s Interior is divided into layers
based on:
• Studies of seismic (earthquake) waves
• Studies of meteorites
 Crust
 Upper part of the lithosphere
 Continental Crust
• Made of granite
• Thick
• Less Dense
 Oceanic Crust
• Made of basalt
• Thin
• More dense
 Mantle
 Below the crust
 Pressure, temperature, and density
will all increase as you go deeper in
to the earth.
 Plate Tectonics Theory
 Lithosphere is broken into rigid but moving
pieces called plates
 Plate Boundaries
• Areas of several catastrophic events such as
earth quakes, volcano's, ocean trenches, and
ridges.
• These plates can either: collide spread apart,
or slide past each other.
Driving force of Plate Tectonics is
MANTLE CONVECTION CELLS
Convection Cells
 Convection Currents in the mantle
drag and pull the lithospheric plates
above them
 Major Crustal Changes
 Divergent Plate Boundaries
• Also called passive continental margin
• Caused by unequal heating
Which graph best represents the geologic age of the surface bedrock on the ocean bottom
 Supporting evidence
 Rocks get older as you move away
from the mid Atlantic ridge
 Alternating magnetics matching on
both sides of the ridge
 MAGNETIC STRIPE
EVIDENCE

North Oriented Rocks are said to have NORMAL

POLARITY
South Oriented Rocks are said to have REVERSED
The earth’s
magnetic field
has reversed
hundreds of
times
In Afar, Ethiopia, a 40-mile magnetic rift
that opened up 1 year ago
 Convergent Plate Boundry
 Subduction zone: where one plate
goes underneath another
 Continental Drift
 Present day continents were once 1
giant land mass called Pangea
 Proof of Pangea
 Matching Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils
were found on opposite coasts.
 Continents fit together like a puzzle.
Evidence: ROCK LAYERS
Matching Mountain Ranges
Glacier Evidence
TRANSFORM PLATE BOUNDARIES

Transform Fault Boundaries

 At a transform fault boundary, plates grind
past each other without creating or
destroying the lithosphere.

 SHALLOW EARTHQUAKES
 Transform faults
• Most join two segments of a mid-ocean ridge.
• At the time of formation, they roughly parallel
the direction of plate movement.
Boundaries: Transform
 Mantle Hot Spots
 As Ocean crust moves over hot spot,
a new island forms.
 It take millions of years for a new
island to form
 Hawaii is larger than Mt. Everest,
most of it is under water.