SCIENCE – EARTH SCI
Volcanic Belts
- It is the series of active volcanoes
Circum Pacific Belt
 Mt. Cotopaxi – found in Ecuador
 Mt. Fujiyama – found in Japan
- It has proportion cone and has snow-
covered peak.
 Mt. Shasta – California
- 5th highest peak in California
- Four Overlapping Cones
 Mt. Rainier – Cascade Ranges
- One of the most dangerous volcano in
the world.
- The glacier in its peak could turn into
a large volume of lahar.
 Mt. Hood – Oregon, Inactive
 Mt. Novarupta - Alaska
- Its crater is filled with ashes
 Mt. Tinakula – Solomon islands
 Mt. Krokatoa – Indonesia
 Mt. Manam – Papua new Guinea
Alpide Belt
 Mt. Ararat – Turkey
 Mt. Damavand – Iran
- Hot springs
 Mt. Hindu Kush – sub-range in
Himalayas
 Mt. Stromboli - Sicily, Italy
- Frequent eruptions
 Mt. Etna - Sicily, Italy
- Tallest active volcano in Europe
 Mt. Vesuvius – Italy
 Mt. Kilimanjaru – Tanzania
 Mt. Elgot – East Africa
Mid Atlantic Belt
- Only belt found on the ocean floor.
Earthquake Belt
- Earthquake sudden shaking of the
ground caused by the passage of seismic waves
through earth's rocks.
Different Types of Seismic waves
 Body waves - can penetrate through
earth's interior
 Surface waves - destructive for it
passes through and observed through the
earth surface.
- moves along the earth's surface, not
through its interior.
 S waves - pass through solid mediums
only and second seismic waves to arrive
after an earthquake occur.
 P waves - through all mediums (Solid,
Liquid, And Gas)
- fastest seismic waves
- 5 kilometers per second (3 m/s)
Circum Pacific Belt
- largest earthquakes zone occurs
around the coast of Pacific-ocean
- Earthquakes originate beneath the
ocean floor. The intense and widespread
ones occur near the coast.
- 2013 earthquake video Bohol Cebu 7.2
magnitude. (Central-Visayas Fault)
Alpide Belt
- Shallow earthquakes 70-300 km from
the earth's surface
Mid Atlantic Belt
- runs along the mid ocean ridges in the
Atlantic
- Located underneath the ocean
- From arctic ocean and close to
southern of south Africa
- The intensity of most earthquake here
is moderate
 SCIENCE – EARTH SCI
Mountains
 Folded Mountains - Large landforms
that rise well above the ground and have steep
slopes and a peak generally higher than a hill.
- Orogenesis refers to the process of
forming mountains and mountain ranges
 Volcanic Mountain Range - These forms
through accumulated lava flows, pyroclastic,
and other igneous rocks.
- The movement of tectonics plate causes
the magma to rise up.
 Dome Mountain Range - from the up
warping of tectonics plates and are not
accompanied by the collision of plate
boundaries.
- This produce elongated structures in
the crust called domes.
 Fault Block Mountains - Normal faults
causes tensional stress and can uplift large
block of crusts to form fault block mountains.
- The displacement of crusts sometimes
produces numerous cracks and forms parallel
mountain ranges.
- As the crust forms cracks the block
that slides down because of gravity is called
graben which usually becomes a valley.
Mountains in Circum Pacific Belt
North American Cordillera – Pacific Coast
- Aleutian Range on to Kamchatka – Japan
Island
- Andes
Mountains in Alpide Belt
Indonesia – Himalayas – Alps
- It also includes European and Asian
Mountain Range.
- Mt Everest, 8848 meters high
 Arctic cordillera - The worlds
northernmost mountain system, is outside
these two mountain belts.
 Submarine Mountain Ranges - include
the oceanic ridge, the longest continuous
underwater mountain system with a length of
about 65 000km.
- Most of the highest mountain ranges in
the world are found in Asia.
- They form the boundary between the
Indian continent and the rest of Asia.
Highest Mountain Ranges
 Himalayas - Mt. Everest
 Karakoram – K2
 Hindu Kush – Tirich Mir
 Pamir – Samani Peak
 Tian Shan – Jengish Chokusu
 Kunlun – Kunlun Goddess
Longest Mountain Ranges
 Andes – 7000km
 Rocky Mountains – 4800 km
 Mt. Atlas – 2500 km
 Barisan Mountains – 1700 km
 Qin Mountains – 1600 km
 Zagros Mountains – 1500 km
 Alps – 1200 km
 Brooks Range – 1100 km
 Cascade Mountains – 1000km
Plate Boundaries
Convergent Boundaries
- Destructive Plate Boundary – one plate
will be recycled and one will be totally
destroyed
- Two tectonic plates move toward each
other.
- Subduction is the sinking process and
the long narrow belt where a plate sinks to a
mantle is call subduction zone.
- Reverse fault
- This is where strongest earthquakes
occur
 Oceanic – Continental
- Oceanic plate is denser that is why it
always subduct.
 SCIENCE – EARTH SCI
- Continental Plate overrides at top of
oceanic forming mountain ranges.
- Volcanoes are mostly found along
subduction zones.
- Magma is produce due to friction of the
plates.
- Trenches are form here and series of
volcanoes.
- Wadati – Benioff zone
: Andes mountains and Cascade ranges.
 Oceanic – Oceanic
- Magma are less dense that is why it
rises on the seafloor through eruption of
Volcanic arcs.
- It also forms deeper trenches and
Island arcs. The Mariana Trench
: Philippine Islands, Japan Islands,
Caribbean
 Continental – Continental
- Continental crusts are too light to
slide down into a trench.
- No subduction and volcanoes occur.
- They crumple and warp to form tall
mountain ranges and as the process
continues, the mountains become higher
: Himalayas – India collide with Eurasian
Continent
Divergent Boundaries
- Two plates that are moving apart
- It causes huge fissures and cracks
underneath the ocean.
- As the plates move apart the
underlying magma rises
- Continent – continent: rift valley
- Oceanic – oceanic: mid-oceanic ridge
- A deep trench is also called as forearc
ridge.
- If divergent boundary is formed on the
continents it forms cracks or fissures
referred to as ridges.
: Iceland – divergence of north American
and Eurasian Plate.
Transform Boundaries
- Two plates slide horizontally
- Can occur underwater and on land
: San Andreas Fault (City of California)
North American and Pacific plate
- Strike-slip fault
Theories:
 Raisin Theory
- Earth is like a grape that contracted
into a raisin due to cooling process that
occurred after the Big Bang Theory
 Isostasy
- Clarence Edward Dutton, 1889
- Every material that exists above the
earth’s surface are lighter materials
 Continental Drift Theory
- Alfred Wegener, 1912
- It states that the continents are
moving.
- Super-continent called Pangaea that
is also predated by super continent called
Rodinia.
- Late Triassic Period the plates began
to break apart.
- Laurasia (north) and Gondwanaland
(sound).
- Separated by a huge body of water
called Tethys Sea.
- Panthalasa
- Permian Period
 Plate Tectonic Theory
- Earth’s outermost layer is fragmented
into dozen large and small solid plates
called tectonic plates.
: North and South American Plate (large)
India and Philippine plates (small)
- Which is constant in motion relatively
to one another.
- When one plate move or collide with
other plate, one plate will subduct and one
will rise.
 SCIENCE – EARTH SCI

Seafloor Spreading Theory

- Mid-ocean ridges are long chain of
mountains underneath the ocean.
- Harry Hess, proposed that hot and less
dense material from the mantle rises.
- Magma is forced upward, which thickens
the oceanic crust.
- Lava solidifies and form a new seafloor
- Denser and cooler seafloor subducts or
sinks and helps in the formation of ridge
- Hot mantle rises and cold mantle sinks.
- Convection current causes the magma
to rise.
- Ocean ridges are located above the
rising magma.
- Rifts are formed because of the
tremendous force of the magma underneath
- Cold magma pushes the portion of the
lithosphere to move apart.