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Oceanography
GEO 9

Lecture 4:
Plate Tectonics
Earths interior Surface observations Formation of a theory Types of plate boundaries Paleogeography

Kirk Domke
Winter 2013

PLATE TECTONICS
(AKA: the theory of just about everything in geology)

Lets look at some observations: At the turn of the 20th Century, it was commonly thought that the Earth consisted of a rigid solid outer crust with a hot molten (liquid) interior. WHY? 1. Temperature increases 3.5C/100m depth in mines. 2. Rocks begin melting at about 500C, so the depth to the fluid interior was about 15 km. (Earths radius is 6371 km). but the Earth did not deform as much as a ball of fluid should under the influence of solar and lunar tides, so scientists were beginning to think this was wrong.

The theory: The Earths surface is covered by a series of rigid slabs (plates) that move in relation to one another and interact at the margins of the plates. Why is this a theory and not a fact in science? Facts are observations, theories are attempts to explain those observations.

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Along come seismologists (people who study earthquakes) Using seismometers, they begin recording two different types of energy waves from earthquakes: Particle motion is in direction that wave is traveling. Traveling pattern of compression and rarefaction. In and out motion. compressional waves IN SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, GASES

P wave

S wave

1) P waves (primary)

Particle motion is perpendicular 2) S waves (secondary) to direction that wave is traveling. Sideways motion. or transverse ONLY IN SOLIDS

(detector)

They found S waves traveling through the Earths interior, but not through a really deep part they called the core.

Seismographic recording on seismometer

Earthquake Source
P waves travel about twice as fast as S waves S-wave shadow zone!

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The Earth is layered.

Solid inner core Molten outer core (16% vol)

Fit of Continents

Solid mantle (83% vol) Solid crust (1% vol) ca. 300-210 Myr ago

Alfred Wegener suggested that continents were originally all together in a giant landmass called Pangaea (1912)

Fossil Evidence:

Fit of Continents

He also used fossil evidence for his theory of continental drift. How can you explain where fossils of land reptiles are found? (They cannot swim!) and what about seed ferns in Antarctica??

ca. 300-210 Myr ago

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Past climates Desert climates w/ sand dunes,dry lakes in Greenland?? Tropical climates w/ coral reefs,coal in Maine??

250 million years ago

Present day

Arctic climates w/ glacial deposits in India?? Geologic deposits indicating past climates make sense ONLY IF continents are reassembled and moved from where they are today.
Why do Africa, India, and Australia have evidence of glaciers? What climates do these places have now?

Matching Rocks Across Oceans so geologists made a prediction based on their theory of continental drift that similar rocks should be found in Africa and the corner of South America: At the end of WWII, the geologic community is at a deadlock. There is evidence for continental drift, but it is largely ignored because there is no apparent mechanism to move continents.

Mid- Atlantic Ridge

but depth (echo) sounding begins to provide an ocean basin profile that does not match with expectations.

Rocks on continents on opposite sides of oceans match!

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Distributions of earthquakes seem to occur at plate boundaries Not only was the middle of the ocean high, but the thickest sediments were at the basin margins (not the middle)

Note how shape of earthquakes in mid-Atlantic matches the coast of Africa? (and these earthquakes fell on the mid-Atlantic ridge!)

and what about the volcanos? Today: Major lithospheric plates and relative movement

7 major and many minor sized plates

80% of the earths volcanoes are found near plate boundaries of the Pacific Ocean

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This led in 1960 to the radical idea that the sea floor was spreading. New crust was added at the mid Atlantic ridge. Where would you find the youngest oceanic crust?

Harry Hess American ship captain during the war (Princeton professor afterward)

Where would you find the oldest oceanic crust?

from paleomagnetic patterns

Seafloor magnetism

Notice: oldest oceanic crust is 161 Ma, compared to 4600 Ma for the Earth

The oldest oceanic crust is often at the trenches!

(Note the time scales: the fastest plates move about as fast as your fingernails grow (~ 8 cm/year))

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Seafloor magnetism

Seafloor magnetism

This led in 1960 to the radical idea that the sea floor was spreading. New ocean crust was added at the ocean ridges e.g. mid-Atlantic ridge. But, if new crust was being added, then: A) the Earths surface has to expand OR B) we have to remove crust somewhere else.

Paleomagnetic properties of rocks of the same age From different continents- N Magnetic pole in Pacific?! explanation (continental configuration has changed over time)

Subduction zone where the crust is removed

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Finally, in 1965, John Tuzo Wilson puts continental drift and sea floor spreading together into the theory of plate tectonics

Finally, in 1965, John Tuzo Wilson puts continental drift and sea floor spreading together into the theory of plate tectonics

Shapes of coastlines

Fossils Past climates

Continental Drift
Similar rock types

Plate Tectonics

Paleomagnetism patterns of sea floor

But, what was the mechanism???

Sea Floor Spreading

Age of sea floor

Ridges, trenches

Mechanism for Plate Tectonics =

Mantle Convection

The tectonic system is powered by heat (convection currents)

[Gravity also helps this system along]

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Blah blah blah tectonics.

blah blah blah convection.

Why are the continents (and continental shelves) so much higher than the ocean basin?

.what does this stuff have to do with oceanography???

The tectonic system creates the ocean floor!

Shelf

Mid- Atlantic Ridge

Lets look at the ocean floor more carefully.

What do we know that might help us?

1. Continents are made of many rocks but compositionally are very similar to granite (like you see in the Box Springs Mountains). These are light (less dense) 2. Oceanic rocks beneath the sediments (the oceanic crust) are made of basalt. This is heavy (more dense). 3. Light things float and heavy things sink. This is buoyancy and is a consequence of GRAVITY!!!

The Earths crust + uppper mantle (lithosphere) is in isostatic equilibrium - plates float on the underlying mantle (asthenosphere)

Is it possible that the ocean floor is lower than the continents because the basalt is denser and thus floats lower than the continents?

Isostasy = buoyancy The Iceberg principle - pressure forces from the displaced water (or rock) balance the weight of the object

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The Iceberg principle - Objects higher above sea level must have deeper roots.

Oceanic crust is about 8 km thick

Continental crust can be up to 65 km thick

Lets make a prediction: continents are higher and ocean floors are lower. Which should have deeper roots?

These observations support our hypothesis that ocean floors are lower because the oceanic crust is denser.

SUMMARY: Continental shelves are higher because they are composed of lighter crust and thus float higher than the oceanic crust. This is because of gravity creating buoyant forces (aka isostasy).

Three kinds of interactions:

1. Move away from one another: divergent margin (aka ocean ridge, spreading center) 2. Move toward another: convergent margin (aka subduction zone, collision zone, trench)

Mid- Atlantic Ridge

3. Slide past one another: transform margin (aka transform fault)

Why might the ocean crust at the mid-Atlantic ridge be higher than the surrounding ocean floor? Hot magma rising there to form volcanoes along ocean ridge. Buoyancy of the magma pushes the overlying crust upward.

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Summary of Plate Interactions

2 kinds of plate divergences: Divergent oceanic crust (e.g. Mid-Atlantic, ridge at spreading center) Divergent continental crust (e.g. Rift Valley of East Africa, continents spread)

Summary of Plate Interactions

Summary of Plate Interactions

3 kinds of plate convergences: Oceanic crust toward continental crust (e.g. west coast of South America-Andes, trenches) Oceanic crust toward oceanic crust (e.g. northern Pacific, deep trenches and island arcs) Continental crust towards continental crust (e.g. Himalayas, plates folded and uplifted)

Summary of Plate Interactions

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Summary of Plate Interactions

Transform boundaries mark locations at which crustal plates move past one another (e.g. San Andreas Fault)

Lets look more closely at the different margins and how they affect the oceans: Divergent Margin Magma (molten rock) rises to the surface here and encounters what? WATER, that cools and solidifies it!

Convergent Margin 2. Volcanic islands (like Japan) form.

3. Volcanos provide sediment from erosion

1. New ocean crust is created (making the oceans bigger). 2. Outgassing - gases added to hydrosphere and atmosphere 3. Chemicals from mantle added to ocean - black smokers 4. Heat is added to the ocean. 4. Big earthquakes create tsunami! 1. Ocean crust is consumed (oceans get smaller.)

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Island arcs form, continents collide, and crust recycles at convergent plate boundaries

Transform Margin

1. Crust is neither added or removed at these margins. A cross section through southern China, showing the convergence of two continental plates. 2. No volcanos either, just earthquakes! Transform margins form because the ocean crust breaks in different places as it is pulled apart by subducting plates. MAGMA DOES NOT PUSH THE PLATES APART!

Neither plate is dense enough to subduct; instead, their compression and folding uplift the plate edges to form the Himalayas.

What makes the tectonic system run?

To answer this, we need to know a bit more about the geology inside the Earth.
HOW WILL WE FIND OUT? 1. Deepest drill hole = 10 km (or not even through crust!) 2. Seismic waves

Actually, 2 different sets of terms for layering: Mechanical Composition:

Crust + upper mantle = lithosphere

(upper 100-200 km)

Lithosphere- rigid outer layer, plates Asthenosphere - weak, flowing layer Lower mantle - rigid lower layer Outer core - dense liquid Inner core - dense solid

3. Xenoliths - foreign rocks. Samples of lower crust and mantle brought up in volcanic eruptions.
4. Experimental petrology - take probable types of rocks and put them under high P, T to see what forms. Chemical Composition:
Crust - granite, light (continental) basalt, dense (oceanic) Mantle - Fe, Mg silicates Core - Fe, Ni

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and we know that subducting plates go quite deep into the mantle, to the core-mantle boundary

Hot stuff (magma) rises at the ocean ridges and cold (dense) ocean plates sink back into the mantle at the trenches.

Colder, dense

WHY?
Buoyancy!!! (due to gravity)

Vertical slice through the Earths mantle showing the distribution of warmer (red) and colder (blue) material

This is due to the differentiation of the Earth that has continued since its formation. What do you think will happen when all of the heat is transferred from the core to the surface of the Earth (most of this heat is lost to space, by the way)? Moon Good news: Radioactive elements are still making heat, so we have a few billion years left. The tectonic system is powered by convective heat and plate movement is driven by gravitational forces causing hot, less dense magma to rise at the ocean ridges and cold, denser oceanic lithosphere to sink at the trenches

NO MORE MOVING PLATES! (like the Moon, Mars, etc.)

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What have you learned today about the coupling between the lithosphere and hydrosphere?

3. Volcanic processes at the divergent and convergent margins of plates contribute chemicals, heat, and sediment to the ocean (more on these later). 4. The tectonic movement of plates results in transfer of heat from the interior to the surface of the Earth. When the interior has cooled, the system will likely stop. 5. Ocean floor is oldest at the trenches (or adjacent to continents) and youngest at the ridges. 6. Divergent margins create new ocean floor; convergent margins consume it. Also get mountain building or volcanic islands at convergent margins though as subduction is not 100% efficient.

Mid- Atlantic Ridge

1. The shape of the ocean basins is controlled by the tectonic system shaping the lithosphere. 2. Isostasy (buoyancy) explains why the continental shelves are so much higher than the ocean basins and why the ridges are higher than the surrounding basins.

and one last item concerning oceans in the geologic past. Do you think that the ocean basins have always been the same shape? 600Ma

and one last item concerning oceans in the geologic past.

220Ma

Movement of continents has been significant over geologic time

Movement of continents has been significant over geologic time

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and one last item concerning oceans in the geologic past.

and one last item concerning oceans in the geologic past.

090Ma

Present

Movement of continents has been significant over geologic time

Movement of continents has been significant over geologic time

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