ESYS 150

LECTURE 3
PLATE TECTONIC EXPANATION OF
THE MAJOR SURFACE FEATURES OF
THE EARTH

Introduction
Convergent Plate Boundaries
Divergent Plate Boundaries
Transform Plate Boundaries
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES

FEATURES
OCEANIC TRENCHES

ISLAND ARCS

MOUNTAIN BELTS
Volcanic
Compressional
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
THREE TYPES OF BOUNDARY

Depends on type of lithosphere involved

(a) ocean/ocean: trench and

island arc.
Japan Trench and Japan

(b) ocean/continent: trench and

volcanic mountain belt.
Peru/Chile Trench and
Andes Mountains

(c) continent/continent:
mountain belt.
Himalayan Mountains
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY
OCEAN/OCEAN COLLISION
Creates trench and a volcanic island.

Cross section showing earthquake locations at depth. Notice the inclined

plane defined by the earthquake sites. Notice the deep-ocean trench, the
volcanoes on the island of Japan and the ocean floor to the west.
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
OCEAN/OCEAN COLLISION
The Japan and Aleutian trenches

Black line indicates the position of the Japan and Aleutian trenches. Note
the large number of major earthquakes just landward of the trench system.
The Pacific plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate at the
Japan and Aleutian trenches.
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
OCEAN/CONTINENT COLLISION
Creates trench and an andesitic mountain belt.

Section through the Earth showing the Peru-Chile trench and the Andes
on the right. Note the descending lithospheric plate and the creation of the
Andes Mountains above them.
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
CONTINENT/CONTINENT COLLISION
Indian plate into the Eurasian plate

Map showing the northward movement

of India over the past 71 million years
relative to a fixed Eurasian plate.

The collision of India with the continental

Eurasian plate starting 45 million years
ago has created the Himalayan
Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.

The crust of the Eurasian plate has been

stacked on the crust of the Indian plate
creating the great elevation.
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
CONTINENT/CONTINENT COLLISION
Simulation of the collision of India into Asia.
Simulated collision of India into Asia.
Wedge is slowly jacked into layered
plasticine confined on its left side but
free to move to the right.

Note the compression of the area in

front of the wedge and the major
faults that form and the masses that
move to the right.

This concept explains much of the

patterns in the tectonic map of Asia.

In actual fact India also deforms

during
the collision.
CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
CONTINENT/CONTINENT COLLISION
Tectonic chart of India and Asia

Tectonic map showing India pushing

into Asia. This creates the Himalayan
Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.

The ongoing collision creates

devastating earthquakes in India,
Nepal and China.

Major earthquakes also occur along

the trench system between the Indian
and Sumatran and Andaman Plates.
Aceh-Andaman earthquake, Dec 26
2004.
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES

FEATURES
CONTINENTAL RIFT ZONES
CONTINENTAL MARGINS
MID-OCEAN RIDGES
Marine magnetic anomalies
Age of the Ocean basins
Heat loss with age.
Depth as a function of age.
Depth of the ocean basins
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
CONTINENTAL RIFT AND MARGIN
Four stage process from rift to sea floor spreading

a) Lithosphere moves over hot area

in mantle

b) It is uplifted forming a dome and

starts to crack apart

c) The crust is weaker and

extensional forces create a
continental rift

d) New sea floor is created within the

rift.

The rifted continental lithosphere

becomes a continental margin
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY
MID-OCEAN RIDGE
Block faulting and the intrusion of magma.

Left) Iceland is being pulled apart by a spreading center in the North Atlantic.
It sits on top of hot spot hence its elevation above sea level

Right) Looking along a fissure in Iceland. This is the rift valley being pulled
apart in an east-west direction by continuing spreading of the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge. Magma is forming in the center of the rift.
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
AGE OF THE OCEAN FLOOR
Age determined from magnetic anomalies
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
MID-OCEAN RIDGE
Model for relation between heat flow and depth and age.

Schematic diagram showing the material flow (broken lines with arrows)
and isotherms (solid lines) showing the thickening of the plate as it loses
heat to the ocean floor above. If one dimensional heat loss is assumed, the
flow of heat through the surface of the oceanic lithosphere dies off as
1/√age.
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY
MID-OCEAN RIDGE
Subsidence of the ocean floor with increasing age.

Cross section through the oceanic lithosphere perpendicular to a mid-ocean

ridge. The ridge starts at a depth of 2500m near the ridge axis and subsides
to a depth of around 6000m on old ocean floor. The subsidence results from
the cooling and contraction of the lithosphere as it moves away from the
spreading center. For ocean floor ≤ 100 Ma there is a simple relation between
depth and age. Depth in meters = 2500 + 350 √t where t is the age of the
ocean crust in millions of years.
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY
MID-OCEAN RIDGE
Relation between heat flow and age and depth and age

Left) heat flow averages versus log (age). Note simple decrease in heat flow
Right) depth versus √age. Note simple increase in depth.
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY
DEPTH OF THE OCEAN FLOOR
Note the Mid-Ocean Ridges and Fracture Zones
TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES

PLATES SLIDING PAST EACH OTHER PRODUCE

LONG LINEAR FEATURES ON OCEANS AND
CONTINENTS

FEATURES
Oceanic transform faults
Oceanic fracture zones
Major Continental strike-slip faults
TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
OCEANIC TRANSFORM FAULTS
Transform faults in the central Atlantic.

Earthquake epicenters superimposed upon the transform faults in the central

Atlantic. Note how the epicenters overlap the ridge axis (red) and transform
faults (green). The earthquakes on the transform faults are all strike-slip
indicating sliding motion.
TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
OCEANIC TRANSFORM FAULT
Morphology associated with oceanic transform faults.
Diagramatic representation of the
topography across a transform fault.

a) Plan view of transform fault

b) Cross section of the fault

showing depth resulting from different
ages across the transform.

d) Actual depth profile when

morphology associated with the
movement of the transform fault is
included.

Depth anomalies continue beyond the active

sections giving rise to Fracture Zones
TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
OCEANIC TRANSFORM FAULTS
Fracture Zones

Fracture zones are long linear gashes on the ocean floor, particularly in the
eastern Pacific.
They are topographic features that have been created at a transform fault.
They remain when the ocean floor has moved beyond the edge of the transform
fault and is no longer active.
TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
CONTINENTAL
The San Andreas Fault

Lies between the Mendocino Triple

Junction and the spreading centers
in the Gulf of California.

Diagramatic representation of the San

Andreas fault showing the relation
to the spreading centers in the Gulf
of California and the Gorda Ridge.

Note the trench system below the East

Pacific Rise and North of Cape
Mendocino.
 TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
CONTINENTAL
The North Anatolian Fault

It is a transform fault separating the Anatolian Plate (Turkey) from Eurasia.

The fault accommodates the movement of Turkey westward into the
Mediterranean Basin. The fault is the site of many large earthquakes.
In addition, the fault ruptures have a very definite time sequence with
the next earthquake expected right by Istanbul.
TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
CONTINENTAL
Dead Sea Fault:

Map of the Dead Sea fault Zone.

Marks the boundary between the

Arabian and African plates

It is the eastern analogue of the

San Andreas Fault in California.

Note the sub-parallel faults that

have created pull apart basins in
the steps between the faults.

The Dead Sea basin has greater

than 7 km of sediments in the
basin below the water.