PLATE TECTONICS

THE MECHANISMS OF
PLATE MOTION
WHAT CAUSES
PLATE MOTION?
 Causes of Plate Movement
 Mantle convection: The process in
which heat from Earth’s inner and outer
cores is transferred through the mantle
 Energy source for convection: heat of
Earth’s interior
 Gravity pulls down the cooler, more
dense region of the mantle
 Basal Drag
Plate motion driven by
friction between the
convection currents in the
asthenosphere and the
more rigid overlying
lithosphere. Slab suction
(gravity): Plate motion
driven by local convection
currents that exert a
downward pull on plates in
subduction zones at ocean
trenches.
THE DRIVING MECHANISM
“CONVECTION CURRENTS”
 Driving force of Plate Tectonics
Thermal Convection Flow in mantle
• Caused by differences in density
 Warm less dense material rises

 Cooler more dense material sinks

 THE DRIVING MECHANISM
“CONVECTION CURRENTS”
 Heat Sources
1. Heat Gradient & Gravity
 Contraction causes temperature &
pressure to increase with depth

2. Decay of radioactive elements

3. Core heating of Mantle

 Material rises towards the surface
 Spreads out and drags the
lithosphere with it
 Whole-Mantle Convection
 Ocean lithospheric slabs sink into lower mantle
• Provides downward arm of convection flow

 Hot mantle plumes at mantle-core boundary

move heat toward surface
Mechanisms of Plate Motion - Causes
 Slab-Pull - Descending Plates:
• Cooling, older and more dense crust sinks and pulls the
trailing lithospheric plate along
• Cooling, Older and more dense slab of ocean crust sinks at
a subduction zone through Asthenosphere pulling trailing
lithosphere with it
Mechanisms of Plate Motion - Causes
 Ridge (slab)-Push - Gravity:
• Elevated ridge system push plates
 Ocean slab thickens and becomes more
dense as it cools causing it to slide down the
sides of the ocean ridges under the influence of
gravity, pushing lithosphere ahead of it
 Plate Motion Mechanisms
Hot Mantle Plumes
 Caused by CONVECTION CURRENTS
• Extends from mantle-core boundary
 Produce Volcanic hot spots
• Spreads out laterally under the lithosphere
 Heated mantle material
rises & spreads out
moving the slabs with it
 Hot Spots
 Hot spots: regions of volcanic activity
in the interior parts of plates away
from plate boundaries
 Examples: Hawaii and Yellowstone
 Hot Spots
 Hot spots occur where rising magma
from the lower mantle remains
stationary for millions of years.
 As a plate moves over the rising
magma, melting of the plate occurs.
 Hot spots are regions of intrusive
and extrusive volcanic activity that
can build volcanoes and lava flows
put up regions of the crust to form
mountains
 KEY IDEA: The hot spot is
stationary… the plate moves
creating an island chain
Other Effects of Plate Tectonics
 Environmental hazards (ex. Earthquakes)
 Changes in Earths’ climate and weather
 The rock cycle
 Major landscape feature of Earth (ex.
Mountains, plains, oceans)
 Exposing rocks to weathering and erosion
providing new information