PLATE TECTONICS Happy the man whose lot itis 10 know the secrets of the earth. EURIPIDES, DRAMATIST lr 486-8058} uring the 1960s our concepts of the architecture of the earth's crust and how the earth “works” were completely revolutionized by the theory of plate tectonics (Greek zektonikos, “builder™). The theory ‘maintains that the lithosphere, the outer cocky shell ofthe earth, consises of a number of rigid plates, 70-150 km. (40-80 mi) thick, that slide under, past, and away from one another. Continents, although parts of the moving plates, are bur passive passengers. Where plates interact with each other, earthquakes and volcanic activity occur, mountain ranges may form, and internal heat is released to the earth’s surface. Plate tectonics integrates nwo older explanations for the discriburion of the earth's physical and geophysical fearures—the theories of continental drift and sea-floor spreading. @ CONTINENTAL DRIFT ‘What ultimately was to become the theory of plate rec- tonics began in 1910 when Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), 2 German meteorologist, presented a paper to the Frank- furt Geological Society in which he expressed his theory that the continents have moved great horizoncal distances in the past 100 million years. Hie called his hypothesis die Verschiebung der Komtinente, meaning “continental dis- placement,” which English-speaking scientists translated ‘View down the axis off valley in leland focmed by dow fang ‘ofthe fiat valley floor. Iceland ia very large volcano on the mid- ‘Aclansc Ridge, which spare ofthe longest mountain range on ear2, ‘ending through che cizee major ocean basins. The prominens rit valley along the ceotral aso leeland was formed by fores paling the car's crust apart (ension) ata divergent houndary bervten T#O ‘ectonic plates. As the platr move apary, aves nit to feed voleenie ‘vem, nd fal form along which the ik vlley subsides, Pipkin, Bernard W. ‘Geology and the environm swith consribudions by D. D. Includes index. ISBN 0-314.02834-% . 1. Environmental geology. 1 QEB8 PAs 1994 $50—de20 1.) Bernard W. Pipkin, Tren, D.D. 1,744 Plate Tectonie to continental drift, the name that stuck. Wegener called the late Paleozoic supercontinen:—one large, unified landmass consisting of all che continents we know to- day—Pangaea (Greek: “all land”; > Figure 3.1). He theorized that Pangaea split apart during Mesozoic time and that che continents had then moved steadily in all di- rections <0 their present positions. Wegener explained that a5 the continents drifted westward (Westwande- rung), they had plowed up mountain ranges such as the ‘Andes and the North American Coast Ranges. Auscralia became geographically isolated, and the Atlantic Ocean became larger at the expense of a diminishing Pacific > FIGURE 3.1 Alfred Wegener's interpretation of the breaicup of Pangaea and continental drift over the past 270 million years. The stippled areas adjacent and over the continents are shallow seas recziving sediments, which explains the similarity of geologic formations of the same age on ‘continents now widely separated. Africa is arbitrarily held in its present-day position as a point of reference for the motion of the other continents Ocean. Strong evidence in favor of the hypothesis, ac cording ro Wegener and many Southern Hemisphere ge- ologiss, isthe distribution of late Paleozoic (Permian Pe riod) glacial deposits and plant fossils known collectively 2s the Gondwana Succession. These distinctive fossil land plants (> Figure 3.2) and their associated glacial deposits are found only in South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica (> Figure 3.3). The only explanation for this, it was argued, is that these continents were once con- nected in the southern parr of Pangaea. Some years earlier this hypothetical former landmass with the distinct Per- jation pattern had been named Gondwanaland. (The norther landmass had been named Laurasia.) Additional paleontological evidence supporting conti- nental drift is supplied by the amphibian and reptile fos- sils currently found on widely separated Gondwana con- tinents. In particular are the fossil remains of the Permian freshwater reptile Mesosaurus found in Brazil and South Africa. Iris inconceivable that these freshwater creatures © > FIGURE3.2 Plant fossils of the Gondwana Succession. ‘These fossils are found only inthe southern continents of Gondwana; thats, in present-day South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica. Shown are Glossopteris leaves from Upper Permian (a) Dunedoo Formation and (b) Diawarra Coal Measures in Australia© > FIGURE3.3 (2) The directions of glacial grooves d in bedrock on continents as they are now positioned show the direction of glacier movement during Late Paleozoic (Gondwana Succession) time. For a large placer or a number of alaciers to produce the directions of the observed grooves ‘would otherwise require source area in the Indian and South ‘Atiantic Oceans. (6) With Gondwana continents reunited and ‘a ice sheet over a south pole in South Africa, the directions of glacier motion are resoived. (c) Gondwana glacial grooves at, Hiller Cove, Australia. These grooves were formed in Permian time and are more than 200 million years old.