Plate Tectonics

The theory that the Earth’s outermost layer is

fragmented into a dozen or more large and
small plates that move relative to one another
as they ride on top of hotter, more mobile
material.
 What Are Tectonic Plates?
• A plate is a large, rigid slab of
solid rock.
– Plates are formed from the
lithosphere: the crust and the
upper part of the mantle.
• The plates “float” on the slowly
flowing asthenosphere: the
lower part of the mantle.
• The plates include both the
land and ocean floor.
• The Mohoriovicic discontinuity
or Moho is the boundary
between the crust and the
mantle.
 What Drives Plate Tectonics?

• The slow movement of hot,

softened mantle lies below
rigid plates.
• The hot, softened rock in the
mantle moves in a circular
manner in a convection flow
– the heated, molten rock
rises to the surface,
spreads, and begins to cool,
and then sinks back down to
be reheated and rises again.
Earth’s Plates
 Permian Triassic

248 million years ago 206 million years ago

Movement of the
Plates Over Time
Jurassic
Cretaceous
206 million years ago
65 million years ago

Present Day
 Progression of
Indian Land Mass
Plate Boundaries
Different Types of Boundaries
 Different Types of Boundaries
• Convergent boundaries come together
– Places where crust is destroyed as one plate
dives under another

• Divergent boundaries spread apart

– Places where new crust is generated as the
plates pull away from each other
– New crust is created from magma pushing
up from the mantle

• Transform boundaries slide against each

other
– Places where crust is neither produced nor
destroyed as the plates slide horizontally
past each other
 Oceanic-Continental Convergence
• The oceanic plate subducts under the continental plate because it has lower
density. 
• The oceanic Nazca Plate is being subducted under the continental part of the
South American Plate.
• The South American Plate is being lifted up, creating the Andes mountains.
• Strong, destructive earthquakes and rapid uplift of mountain ranges are
common in this region.
• These earthquakes are often accompanied by uplift of the land by as much as
a few meters.
• Mount Saint Helens is along the subduction zone of the Juan de Fuca plate (an
oceanic plate) and the North American plate (a continental plate).

Oceanic – Continental Convergence

 Oceanic-Oceanic Convergence
• When two oceanic plates converge, one
is usually subducted under the other.
• An older oceanic plate is colder,
therefore more dense and less buoyant,
and will subduct under a younger,
hotter, less dense, and more buoyant
oceanic plate.
• In the process, a trench is formed.
– The deepest trenches in the oceans
are along oceanic-oceanic Oceanic – Oceanic Convergence
subduction zones (i.e., the Marianas
Trench in the Pacific, which is
deeper than Mt. Everest is high).
• Subduction in oceanic-oceanic plate
convergence can result in the formation
of volcanoes.
• Examples of oceanic-oceanic
convergence are the arcuate chains of
islands in the southwest Pacific, Japan,
and the Aleutian Islands.
 Continental-Continental Convergence

Continental – Continental Convergence

• When two continents meet head-on,

neither is subducted because the
continental rocks are relatively light and, like
two colliding icebergs, resist downward
motion.
• Instead, the crust tends to buckle and be The collision between the Indian and
pushed upward or sideways. Eurasian plates has pushed up the
Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.
 Continental-Continental Convergence

• 50 million years ago, the

Indian Plate collided into the
Eurasian Plate.

• After the collision, the slow

continuous convergence of the
two plates over millions of
years pushed up the Himalaya
and the Tibetan Plateau to
their present heights.

• The Himalaya form the highest

continental mountains in the
world.
 Divergence
• Divergent boundaries occur
along spreading centers where
plates are moving apart and new
crust is created by magma
pushing up from the mantle.
• The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a
divergent boundary.
• Sea-floor spreading over the
past 100 to 200 million years has
caused the Atlantic Ocean to grow
from a tiny inlet of water between
the continents of Europe, Africa,
and the Americas into the ocean
that exists today.
 Divergence
• Iceland is splitting along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the North
American and Eurasian Plates, as North America moves westward
relative to Eurasia.
• In East Africa, spreading processes have already torn Saudi Arabia
away from the rest of the African continent, forming the Red Sea.
• The actively splitting African Plate and the Arabian Plate meet in
what geologists call a triple junction, where the Red Sea meets the
Gulf of Aden.
 Transform

• The zone between two plates that

slide
past one another is called a
transform-fault boundary, or
transform boundary.

• These large faults connect two

spreading centers or connect
trenches.

• Most transform faults are found on

the ocean floor.
 Transform
• The San Andreas Fault is
one of the few transform
faults exposed on land.
– It connects the East
Pacific Rise, a divergent
boundary to the south, with
the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a
divergent boundary to the
north.

– Most earthquakes in
California are caused by
the accumulation and
release of strain as the two
plates slide past each
other.
 Consequences of Plate Tectonics
• Earthquakes and volcanic activity are linked to plate
tectonic processes.
• The Ring of Fire is the most seismically and volcanically
active zone in the world.
 Consequences of Plate Tectonics

Aerial view of the area around Thingvellir, Iceland,

The San Andreas Fault – a showing a fissure zone (in shadow) that is an on-land
transform fault exposure of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Right of the fissure,
the North American Plate is pulling westward away from
the Eurasian Plate (left of fissure).
 Consequences of Plate Tectonics

The Aleutian Islands, an island arc The 1980 eruption of Mount

Saint Helens
 Consequences of Plate Tectonics

Helicopter view (in February 1994) of the active

lava lake within the summit crater of 'Erta 'Ale
(Ethiopia), one of the active volcanoes in the
East African Rift Zone.

The convergence of the Nazca and South American Plates

has deformed and pushed up limestone strata to form
towering peaks of the Andes, as seen here in the
Pachapaqui mining area in Peru.
 References
• Understanding Plate Motions. USGS.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/unde
rstanding.html
• Plate Movement. OptIPuter Outreach.
http://education.sdsc.edu/optiputer/teacher
s/platemovement.html
• Plate Tectonics. The Way the Earth
Works. LHS GEMS, 2002.