PLATE

TECTONICS
The Earth’s History
 PLATE
TECTONICS
Continental Drift
Theory

Seafloor
Spreading
Continental Drift Theory

If you look at a map of the world,

you may notice that some of the
continents could fit together like
pieces of a puzzle.
Continental Drift Theory

Alfred Wegener proposed

the hypothesis of continental
drift in 1911

He gathered information from

many different sources and
used it as evidence for his
hypothesis.
Continental Drift Theory

The continental drift

hypothesis proposes that the
continents were assembled to
form the supercontinent
called Pangaea.

Moved through time

Continental Drift Theory
Continental Drift Theory

GEOGRAPHICAL
EVIDENCE
Antonio Snider-Pelligrini (1858)
a geographer cut out a map of Africa and
South America suggesting they were
connected at one time

Alfred Wegener pointed the presence of

mountain ranges having similar rock types
and age but separated by vast oceans.
Continental Drift Theory
BIOLOGICAL
EVIDENCE

Similar terrestrial species

were found on many
continents now separated
by oceans.
Continental Drift Theory

Lack of mechanism to explain

continental movement.
Wegener’s idea was not With advances in technology, new
accepted by the scientific information was gathered in
community because he association with WWII
could not explain how the
continents moved.
Seafloor Spreading In the 1963, Harry Hess
developed the idea of seafloor
spreading to explain the
seafloor’s formation
Continental
movement is the
result of ocean floor
movement
 Seafloor The theory showed
Spreading that the ocean floor
is split along the
ridge where the
magma rises to form
the new ocean floor.
 PLATE
TECTONICS
THEORY
WORLD
PLATES
PLATES
The Earth’s crust and
upper mantle
(Lithosphere) are broken
into sections called plates

The Lithosphere is the

rigid, outermost layer of
outer crust and
uppermost mantle. This
makes up the “Plate” of
Plate Tectonics.
What makes the plates move?

Convection Currents in
the mantle move the
plates as the core heats
the slowly-flowing
asthenosphere (the
elastic/plastic-like part of
the mantle).
Three types of plate boundaries
Divergent Boundaries
A plate boundary
where two plates
move away from each
other.


RIFTING
causes
SEAFLOOR
SPREADING
Divergent Boundaries

also known as
Constructive Margin

Using hands to show relative motion

Convergent Boundaries
A plate boundary where two plates move
towards each other.

Boundaries between two

plates that are colliding

 

This stress is called COMPRESSION

Convergent Boundaries
Places where plates crash (or
crunch) together or subduct
(one sinks under)
 Three Types of Convergent Boundaries
Ocean plate colliding with a less dense continental plate

Subduction Zone: The process by which oceanic crust

sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the
mantle at a convergent plate boundary.

Oceanic-Continental
Oceanic-Continental

VOLCANOES
occur at
subduction
zones
 Three Types of Convergent Boundaries
Ocean plate colliding with another ocean plate

The less dense plate slides under the more dense plate creating a
subduction zone called a TRENCH

Oceanic-Oceanic
 Three Types of Convergent Boundaries
A continental plate colliding with another continental plate
Have Collision Zones:A place where folded and thrust faulted
mountains form.

Continental-Continental
Transform Fault Boundaries
A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite direction.

Known as
Conservative
Plate Margin

This stress is called

SHEARING
Transform Fault Boundaries
What happens next at
Transform
Boundaries?

• May cause Earthquakes

when the rock snaps
from the pressure.

• Transform Boundary is
the San Andreas Fault in
California.
 PLATE TECTONICS THEORY

Explains that the Earth’s

lithosphere is broken into
distinct units that move as a
coherent package. Where the
tectonic plates meet, produces
distinct physical
characteristics on the Earth’s
surface.
Summary Illustration
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