Sea Floor Spreading & Plate

Tectonics

Ch.2 The Sea Floor

 I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
A.Types of Plate Boundaries
1.Divergent boundaries, where plates move away
from each other.
2.Convergent boundaries, where plates move
towards each other.
3.Transform boundaries, where plates slide along
next to each other.
 I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
B. The lithosphere,
about 100 km (60
miles) thick, is rigid
and composed of the
crust and the upper
mantle.
C. The lithosphere
floats on the more
plastic upper mantle,
or asthenosphere.
 I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
D. At convergent
boundaries, two plates
collide with each other.
Three types of convergence:
1. Oceanic plate and a
continental plate.
2. Between two oceanic
plates.
3.Between two continental
plates.
 I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
E. Oceanic / Continental Convergence
1. Oceanic crust (basalt) is more dense, it tends to
dive down where it meets continental crust
(granite), called subduction.
2. Forms submarine trenches, or subduction zones,
as well as volcanoes and earthquakes.
3. Can pull an entire continent (Denver).
 I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
F. Oceanic / Oceanic Convergence
1. Both sink – one deeper than the other
a. Mariana Trench is deepest place (~36,000 feet deep)
2. Subduction melts ocean sediment, creating a
source of magma, which is released in volcanoes
forming volcanoes and islands arcs.
3. Aleutian Islands
 I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
G. Continental / Continental Convergence
1. Push each other up like rams butting heads,
forming mountain ranges.
2.Himalaya Mountains
3.Cascade Mountains
I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
H. Transform Plate
Boundaries
1. Two plates that slide
past each other.
2. San Andreas fault - 5
centimeters per year
for the past 10 million
years.
I. Sea Floor Spreading & Plate Tectonics
I. Hot Spots
1. Place where magma
forces its way up
through the lithosphere.
2. Can form volcanoes
(Hawaiian islands),
geysers, and bubbling
mud pools
(Yellowstone)
3. Can lift an entire
continent (African
Plateau), known as a
superplume.