Theory of Continental

Drift
The Theory of Plate Tectonics
starts with another idea…
Continental Drift. The Earth
once had a single land mass
called Pangaea that broke apart
into pieces that drifted away to
become the major continents of
Pangaea
today.
Sea floor Spreading
• It was proposed by American Geologist, professor and
military officer Harry Hess in 1960.

• According to this theory , the sea floor was created at

mid-ocean ridges, spreading in both directions from the
ridge system.

• The oceanic crust eventually slides down into the

oceanic trenches along the Pacific Ocean Basin
Sea floor Spreading
Seafloor spreading
3 Types of Plate Boundaries
Divergent Divergent

Convergent

Transform
Transform
 Divergent boundary
Divergent boundary or Destructive plate boundaries=
two plates move apart
• Magma rises and creates new crust or seafloor

Causes: mid-
ocean ridges,
rift valleys, new
crust ,
volcanoes
Divergent Boundaries

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Diverging Africa
Diverging Iceland
 Convergent boundary

• Convergent= when two tectonic plates push into one

another.
 Convergent Boundaries
• Continental vs. Continental

• Continental vs. Oceanic

• Oceanic vs. Oceanic

 Continental vs. Continental
•When two continental
crustal plates collide,
the continents buckle
upward and form
mountains.

Himalayas- Asia
Himalayas- Asia
 Oceanic vs. Continental

•The oceanic plate

slides under the
continental plate.

•The continental crust

crumbles and forms
new mountains.
Oceanic vs. Continental
• Ex: Andes mtn in S.
America

Cascade Mtns. in N.
America- Mt. St. Helens
 Oceanic vs. Oceanic

•Two oceanic plates

collide, one of the
oceanic plates slides
under the other.
•also called a
subduction zone
Oceanic vs.
Oceanic Hawaiian
Islands
 Transform boundary

• When two tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally

Produces?
Earthquakes
San Andreas
Fault
Plate Boundaries