◤EARTH SCIENCE ◢

The 4 Branches Continental Crust

• Geology - the study of the earth - upper crust composed of granitic rocks
• Oceanology - the study of the ocean - density is 2.7 g/cm3
• Meteorology - the study of the atmosphere - up to 4 billion years old
and the processes that produce weather
• Astronomy - the study of the stars and the Oceanic Crust
universe - basaltic composition
- density is 3.0 g/cm
Scientific Inquiry - younger than the continental crust
• refers to the diverse ways in which scientists
study the natural world and propose Mantle
explanations based on the evidence derived - below the crust to a depth of 2900 kilometers
from their work. - thicker than the crust
- uppermost mantle is composed of igneous rock,
Hypothesis peridotite rock (changes at greater depth)
- Educated/Scientific guess
Core
Theory - just below the mantle
- Tested, confirmed, supported hypothesis - sphere with a radius of 3486 km
- composed of an iron nickel alloy.
Variables
1. Independent variable Mohorovičić or Moho discontinuity
- The variable that changes - boundary between the crust and the mantle
2. Dependent variable
- The variable that changes because of the Gutenberg's discontinuity
independent variable - core-mantle boundary
3. Controlled
- The variable that does not change (constant) Lehman-Bullen discontinuity
- outer-inner core boundary
Scientific Method
- a pattern or a body of technique used to: Physical Compositions of the Earth
• investigate a phenomenon
• acquire new knowledge
Lithosphere
• correct and integrate previous knowledge - the rigid layer of the Earth (solid)
- located in the crust and uppermost mantle
6 Basic Steps in the Scientific Method
(about 100km thick)
• Observe - cool, rigid and solid
• Ask a question/ Identify a Problem
• Formulate a HypothesisDesign and Perform an Asthenosphere
Experiment - from the Greek word asthenes meaning "weak"
• Analyze Data and results - beneath the lithosphere
• Draw a Conclusion - upper mantle
- soft, weak layer that is easily deformed
The Internal Structure of the Earth
Lower Mantle
Compositional layers of the Earth - more rigid
- earth's interior consists of the three major zones - rocks are very hot and capable of gradual flow
defined by their chemical composition.

Crust
- the outermost layer of the Earth.
Outer Core
- liquid layer Which plate does the Philippines belong to?
- convection flow of metallic iron generates the • Sunda plate
earth's magnetic field - A minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the
eastern hemisphere
Inner Core
- behaves like a solid Development of the Plate Tectonics Theory

How were the physical layers of the interior of the Abraham Ortelius (1596)
earth determined? - Flemish cartographer
Seismic waves: - said that coastlines of continents appear to fit
• P waves together.
• S waves
James Hutton (1785)
Seven major lithospheric plates account for 94% of earths - The father of Modern Geology
surface area - Principle of Uniformitarianism
- Proposed that erosion and deposition has
Convection Current occurred on the earth over time.
- Moves the plates around. - "The present is the key to the past"
Heat transfer: Benjamin Franklin (1792)
1. Convection - hypothesized that the earth's crust is floating on
- Transferred by direct conduct.
a fluid interior, thus the earth's surface would be
2. Conduction capable of being broken and disordered
- Transferred by the mass motion of molecules.
3. Radiation Alfred Wegener (1912)
- Transferred by electromagnetic radiation
- Continents were once joined in a super continent
Pangaea
Plate Movement
Arthur Homes (1929)
Tectonics - comes from the Greek word - convection in the matter is the driving force of
"tektonikos" (built)
continental drift.
Plate - around 100 km (62 mi) thick and consists of two
principal types of materials: oceanic crust and Harry Hess (1960)
continental crust. - oceanic crust forms along mid-ocean ridges and
spreads out laterally away from the ridge
Tectonic plates - are pieces of earth's crust and seafloor spreading
uppermost mantle referred to as the lithosphere.
Theory of Plate Tectonics
Different Tectonics Plates a) it provides answers
1. Pacific Plate 9. Philippine Sea Plate b) Gives understanding of why hazards often
2. North American Plate 10. Arabian Plate occur and how mineral resources are obtained
3. African Plate 11. Caribbean Plate c) Allows us to connect earlier observations
4. Eurasian Plate 12. Cocos Plate
5. Indo-Australian Plate 13. Caroline Plate
6. South American Plate 14. Scotia Plate Lines of Evidence for Plate Tectonics
7. Somali Plate 15. New Hebrides Plate Theory
8. Nazca Plate 16.Burma Plate

The continental jigsaw puzzle

- There is a similarity between coastlines at the opposite
Movement of the plates makes:
sides of the Atlantic Ocean
• Mountain ranges - Edward Bullard and associates
• Earthquakes - A much better approximation of the outer boundary of
• Islands a continent is the seaward edge of its continental shell
• Volcanos
Fossils matching across the seas
• Mesosaurus
- a small aquatic freshwater reptile whose fossil remains
are limited to black shales of the Permian period (about
260 million years ago) in eastern South America and
southwestern Africa.
• Glossopteris
- tongue-shaped leaves and seeds that were too large to
be carried by the wind, was known to be widely
dispersed among Africa, Australia, India, and South
America
- were also discovered in Antarctica
Rock types and geologic features
- mountain belts that terminate at one coastline and
reappear on landmasses across the ocean
- Appalachians trends northeastward through the
eastern United States and disappears off the coast of
Newfoundland
- landmasses positioned about 200 million years ago,
formed a continuous mountain belt
Ancient climate
- paleoclimatic (paleo = ancient, climatic = climate)
data supports the plate tectonics
• Glacial ice
- southern continents are joined together and located
near the South Pole
• Coal swamps
- fossils of tree ferns with large fronds a feature
consistent with warm, moist climates
Ocean Drilling
- Seafloor-spreading
- Researchers used:
• fossil remains of microorganisms in sediments resting
directly on the crust
• Thickness of ocean floor
Hotspots
• mantle plume
- cylindrically shaped upwelling of hot rock
• hot spot
- surface manifestation of a mantle plume
- area of volcanism, high heat flow, and crustal uplifting
Paleomagnetism
• magnetic reversal
- the magnetic north pole becomes the magnetic south
pole and vice versa
• normal polarity
- rocks exhibit the same magnetism as the present
magnetic field
• reverse polarity
- rocks exhibiting the opposite magnetism
• Off the Pacific coast of North America, alternating
stripes of high- and low-intensity magnetism were
discovered. This supported the theory of seafloor
spreading.
Features Along Plate Boundaries
Trenches
- The oceanic trenches are long but narrow
topographic depressions of the sea floor.
- They also are the deepest parts of the ocean
floor.
Continental Volcanic Arc
- Mountain systems produced in part by volcanic
activity associated with the subduction of oceanic
lithosphere.
• Subduction zones are sites of gravitational
sinking of Earth's lithosphere.
Volcanic Island Arc
- volcanoes grow up from the ocean floor rather
than on a continental platform
- When subduction is sustained, it will eventually
build a chain of volcanic structures large enough
to emerge as islands
- the formed land consisting of an arc- shaped
chain of volcanic islands is called a volcanic
island arc, or simply an island arc
Mountain Range
- is a series of mountains arranged in a line and
connected by high ground.
- are formed by a variety of geological processes,
but most of the significant ones on Earth are the
result of plate tectonics
• The process of mountain building is collectively
called orogenesis, from Greek terms:
- oro, meaning “mountain”
- genesis, meaning “to come to being”
Mid-ocean Ridge
- or mid- oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain
range, formed by plate tectonics.
Rift Valley
- a lowland region formed by the interaction of Earth's
tectonic plates.
Types of Boundaries
1. Divergent Plate Boundary
- When two plates move apart or pull away from
each other.
- “dissecting” or “dividing”
- Happens on land and under water
- a feature that exists when two tectonic plates
move away from each other
- Constructive
➮ Oceanic ridges
- elevated areas of the sea- floor characterized by
high heat flow and volcanism.
➮ Rift Valley
- along the crest of some ridge segments is a deep
canyon-like structure
- Long and narrow depression
- - sites where lithosphere is descending (being
a) Sea floor spreading
The mechanism that operates along the oceanic
ridge system to create new seafloor
- Typical rates of spreading:
• average 5 centimeters or 2 inches)
per year (human fingernail growth)
• Slow spreading rates of 2
centimeters per year in MidAtlantic
Ridge
• Fast spreading rates of more than15
centimeters (6 inches) per year in East
Pacific Rise
b) Continental Rift
↳ Continental rifting occurs where plate motions
produce opposing tensional forces that thin the
lithosphere and promote upwelling in the mantle.
↳ Stretching causes the brittle crust to break into
large blocks that sink, generating a rift valley.
↳ Continued spreading generates a long narrow
sea similar to the present-day Red Sea.
↳ Eventually, an expansive deep-ocean basin
containing a centrally located oceanic ridge is
formed by continued seafloor spreading.
2. Transform Plate Boundary
- When plates slide past each other.
- They do not destroy or create land.
- Conservative
- Example: 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook a
large part of Luzon in 1990 which originated
from the Philippine fault and Digdig fault which
moves in transform mechanism.
3. Convergent Plate Boundary
- plates move onto each other.
- Crust is destroyed as one plate dives under
another.
- Destructive
- It involves:
a) Continental-continental plates
b) Oceanic-continental plates
c) Oceanic-oceanic plates
➮ Subduction Zone
subducted) into the mantle
- oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench
and back into the mantle
WHY DOES SUBDUCTION HAPPEN?
↦ the density of the descending lithospheric plate is
greater than the density of the underlying
asthenosphere.
a) Continental-continental
- Continental collisions
- one landmass moves toward the margin of
another because of subduction of the intervening
seafloor
- the continental crust buckled and fractured and
was generally shortened horizontally and
thickened vertically
b) Oceanic-continental
- the buoyant continental block floats, while the
denser oceanic slab sinks into the mantle
• Continental volcanic arc
- volcanic activity associated with the subduction
of oceanic lithosphere
c) Oceanic-oceanic
- the less dense young oceanic block floats, while
the denser old oceanic slab sinks into the mantle
• Volcanic island arc
• Island arc
- land consisting of an arc-shaped chain of
volcanic islands
➮ Deep-sea Trenches
- surface manifestations produced as oceanic Plate Boundaries and Tsunamis
lithosphere descends into the mantle

WHY ARE TRENCHES IN THE WEST PACIFIC Tsunami

DEEPER THAN IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC? • Harbor waves
↦ In western Pacific, some oceanic lithosphere is • Seismic sea waves
180 million years old (thickest and densest in - Caused by processes that abruptly move large
oceans) volumes of ocean water:
↦ These dense slabs plunge into the mantle at • Earthquake
• Submarine volcanic eruption
almost 90 degrees angle.
• Coastal/submarine landslide
or rockfall
• Extraterrestrial impact
Type of Sketch of Direction of Associated
Movement Examples
Boundary Boundary Feature

Continental Rift
Valley Great Rift Valley Most tsunami are generated at subduction zones:
Divergent Apart
(Continental
Plate)
(Africa)
• Chile
Plate
Boundary
← → (Dividing) Mid-Atlantic
• Alaska
Seafloor Ridge (Atlantic
spreading
(Oceanic Plate)
Ocean)
• Philippines
• Japan
Transform → Sliding past Earthquake
San Andreas
Plate Fault
Boundary ← each other Faults
(California)
Wind Generated Wave vs Tsunami
Himalayas
Mountain Range
• Long wavelengths (over 100 km)
Convergent
Plate Boundary
→← Colliding into
each other
Mountain
Ranges
(Eurasian Plate
and
• Longer periods (more an an hour)
(Collision)
IndoAustralian
Pllate)
• Travels at High Speeds
Convergent Plate Older Plate
Aleutian Islands
Boundary subducts under Volcanic island
(Subduction: Japan
the younger arc
oceanic-oceanic) New Zealand
plate

Convergent Plate More dense oceanic

Volcanic arc
Boundary plate subducts under
(Subduction oceanic- the less dense (volcanic mountian Andes
range)
continental) continental plate

Plate Boundaries and Earthquakes

earthquake - is a sudden motion or trembling in

the crust caused by the abrupt release of
accumulated stress along a fault, a break in the
Earth’s crust.

Earthquake Depth:
• Shallow earthquake - causes the most damage
• Intermediate earthquakes - moderate damage
• Deep earthquakes - least damage

Wadati–Benioff zone
- a zone of seismicity corresponding with the
down-going slab in a subduction zone
(Convergent Boundary)