Structura

l Geology
Group 1
Module 5
 Table of contents

01 02 03

CONTINENT SEA-FLOOR PALEOMAGN

AL DRIFT SPREADING ETISM
Evidences, Taylor’s Mid-Oceanic Ridge, TRM, Polar Wandering
Hypothesis, Wegener’s Trenches, Aseismic Ridges
Hypothesis
CONTINEN
TAL DRIFT
 01
Continenta
l Drift
-Abhijith Deepan
Continental Drift
Continent Drift theory was put forward by Alfred
Wegener. He was a German climatologist, geologist,
geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
● The movement of continents resulting from the motion
of tectonic plates.
● 300 Mya, all the continents of the earth were united
together and formed a single super continent called
Pangaea.
● The super ocean surrounding the Pangaea was
Panthalassa.
● 200 Mya, Pangaea was divided into 2; Laurasia and
Gondwanaland.
● After several million years, Laurassia and
Gondwanaland were subdivided and formed the
continents which we have today.
 02
Evidences
for
Continental
Drift Theory
-Akhil Prasannakumar
Evidences that favor Continental
Drift
Geologica
l
Evidences
Fossil Similarities
Continental Boundaries
Geological
Evidences
Other geological evidences that strengthen the
continental drift theory are :
● Lithological similarity.
● Stratigraphic similarity.

The belt of ancient rocks of 2,000 million

years from Brazil coast matches with those
from western Africa
Geophysic
al
Evidences
Geophysical
Evidences
● Palaeomagnetism : the study of the record
of the Earth’s magnetic field in rocks,
sediment etc.
● Magnetic minerals in rocks can lock-in a
record of the direction and intensity of the
magnetic field when they form.
● This record provides information on the
past behavior of Earth's magnetic field
and the past location of tectonic plates.
 Tectonic &
Meteorologica
l Evidences
Tectonic & Meteorological
Evidences
• Fold mountains such as the Alps, the Alps arose as a result of the collision of
the African and Eurasian tectonic plates.
• The Himalayas resulted from the collision of the Indian plate with the
Eurasian plate.
• Wegener used climatic clues to substantiate his facts. One of the clues he
used was the glacier. Wegener, in his expedition, discovered glacier grooves
in all the continents. Glacier grooves are the gaping trenches or landmarks
carved out by movement of glacier.  He discovered glacier groves in
continents that were not cold enough to support snow formation in the
present day.
 Evidences for Gondwanaland
1.) Similarities in shape of coastlines
2.) Permo-Carboniferous glaciation

Permo-
Carboniferous:
about 300 million years
ago
was a period of
significant glaciation.
3.) Glossopteris Flora
4.) Similar Orogenic belts
Orogeny – mountain building process.
Orogenic belt or orogen develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted to form one
or more mountain ranges. 
 03
Taylor’s
Hypothesis
-Aleena Baby
Taylor’s
Hypothesis
● According to Taylor, long back in the past there were
two great land masses, one at the northern
hemisphere known as Laurasia and the other at the
southern hemisphere known as Gondwanaland.
● These landmasses started spreading outwards
towards the equator, more or less radially from the
polar regions.
● His assumptions of continental drift were mainly
intended to explain the formation of Tertiary
mountains.
Evidences &
Failure
He cited certain evidences in support of his theories:
a. East coast of South America is similar in shape to the
West coast of Africa. They fit like the parts of a zig-
saw.
b. Location of most of the tertiary mountains are found
more or less towards the equator side of the
continental masses.

● But his assumptions fail to justify the exact

happenings; for example, tidal forces never increase
the earth's rotation, but the assumption is just the
reverse of it.
● Failed to explain the drifting of South America and
Africa.
 04
Wegener’s
Hypothesis
-Aleena Ramesh
Wegener’s
Hypothesis
● In the 20th century, Wegener published a paper
explaining his theory that the continental landmasses
were drifting across Earth.
● Using several geological evidence, Wegener
suggested that earth's continents were once a part of
an enormous landmass called Pangea.
● It is based on certain paleontological and
paleoclimatic data.
For example,
● Fossil remains of fresh water
reptile Mosasaurus.
● Fossils of the fern, Glossopteris
found in all of the southern
continent's show that they were
once joined.
● He also matched up rock
formations on either side of the
Atlantic Ocean like the puzzle
pieces.
Objections
● Fossil plants could have been spread from continent
to another by winds or ocean currents.
● Some authorities on Geotectonic, feel it
mechanically impossible for such long scale drifting
of the continents.
● Analysis of the rocks on either side of the Atlantic
shows that resemblance is only superficial.
● Polar wandering might have been caused by the
moving of pole other than the moving of continents.
● The mechanism suggested by Wegener for the
displacement did not withstand criticism.
 SEA-
FLOOR
SPREADIN
G
 05
Sea-floor
Spreading
-Amiya Vinod
Sea-floor
Spreading
● Seafloor spreading is a geological process in which
tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth's lithosphere—
split apart from each other.
● Seafloor spreading and other tectonic activity
processes are the result of mantle convection.
● Mantle convection is the slow, churning motion of
Earth's mantle.

● There are three types of plate-plate interactions

based upon relative motion:
i. Convergent, where plates collide,
ii. Divergent, where plates separate, and
iii. Transform motion, where plates simply slide past
each other.
Process of Sea-
floor spreading
a. Magma comes out of the rift valley.
b. Magma cools to rock and hardens.
c. Rock is pushed away as new rock is formed at MOR.
d. Oceanic crust and continental crust meet at the
trench.
e. Oceanic crust bends down under the continental
crust.
f. Gravity pulls rock towards mantle.
g. Rock melts to mantle.
 06
Mid-
Oceanic
Ridge
-Abhijith Deepan
Mid-Oceanic Ridge
● A mid-ocean ridge is a seafloor
mountain system.
● Forms when tectonic plates separates.
● When tectonic plates get separated,
magma arises through the gap of the
tectonic plates.
● These magma cools down to form rock
and forms new mountains
● Example: Carlsberg ridge Pacific -
Antarctic ridge, East Pacific ridge
 07
Oceanic
Trenches
-Aeshah Rafeeque
Oceanic Trenches
● Oceanic trenches are prominent long, narrow
topographic depressions of the ocean floor.
They are typically 50 to 100 kilometers wide
and 3 to 4 km below the level of the
surrounding oceanic floor, but can be
thousands of kilometers in length.

● The hypothesis of the sea-floor spreading

indicates that the sea-floor material is
subducted beneath a continent along what is
known as a Benioff Zone.
 08
Aseismic
Ridges
-Akhil Prasannakumar
Aseismic Ridges
● ‘A-seismic’ - Lack of seismic activity.
● These are a chain of seamounts under the
ocean or islands with an active volcano at
one end and eroded volcanoes extending
away from it .
● The Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor
Seamounts chain extends some 6,000 km.
● Most aseismic ridges are constructed by
volcanism from a hotspot.
 09
Marine
Magnetic
Studies
-Aleena Baby
Marine Magnetic
Studies
● It has been established that all rocks exhibit
magnetic properties one of which is a fossil
magnetism which is acquired during the formation
of the rock.
● The direction of magnetization is in response to the
prevailing magnetic field.
● The study of fossil magnetism in rocks suggests that
the earth's magnetic field had reversed it's
orientation several times in the last few million
years.
● In other words, the position of the earth's magnetic
axis had moved relative to its rotational axis.
● The magnetism of normally
magnetized strip of oceanic crust adds
to the earth's magnetism and therefore
a magnetometer carried over such a
strip registers a stronger magnetism
than average.
● Similarly, the magnetism of a
reversely magnetized strips subtracts
from the present magnetic field of
earth and therefore a magnetometer
carried over such a strip indicates a
weaker magnetic field- negative
magnetic anomaly.
 10
Plate
Tectonics
-Aleena Ramesh
Plate Tectonics
● Due to convention of the asthenosphere and
lithosphere, the plates move relative to each other at
different rates.
● It is responsible for many different geological
formations such as Himalayan mountain range in
Asia, East Africa.
● The plates slide over a partially molten plastic layer,
Asthenosphere. In this zone, the velocity of shear
waves drops minimum.
● The Asthenosphere is believed to be the site of
convention cells.
● The heat flow associated with oceanic ridges
suggests that convention currents exists within the
earth.
● Most of the mantle is hot solid. Due to unequal
distribution of heat ,convention currents
generates in it
 11
Continental Drift
in the light of
Plate-Tectonics
-Amiya Vinod
Continental Drift
-Plate Tectonics
● Continental drift, large-scale horizontal
movements of continents relative to one
another and to the ocean basins during
one or more episodes of geologic time.
This concept was an important precursor
to the development of the theory of plate
tectonics, which incorporates it.
● In the early 20th century, a scientific theory
called continental drift was proposed about
this migration of the continents. That theory
was initially ridiculed, but it paved the way
for another theory called plate tectonics that
scientists have now accepted to explain how
Earth's continents move.

Cause of continental drift:

Tremendous heat and pressure within the earth cause
the hot magma to flow in convection currents. These
currents cause the movement of the tectonic plates that
make up the earth's crust.
 PALEO
MAGNETIS
M
 12
Paleo
magnetism
-Aeshah Rafeeque
Paleomagnetism
● It is believed that with the movement of metallic iron
in to the core of the earth, the earth acquired a
magnetism. Certain rocks record Earth’s magnetic
field in them. These rocks record the strength and
direction of the Earth’s magnetic field at the time of
their formation.

● The magnetism of old rocks can be measured to

determine the direction and strength of the Earth’s
magnetic field in the past. This is known as
Paleomagnetism, or Remnant magnetism, or Fossil
Magnetism.
● At the time of cooling of the magma the
paramagnetic minerals acquire earth’s magnetism
and get themselves aligned in the vector of the
earths magnetic field’, thus preserve a record of
the earth’s magnetic field when the magma
solidifies. This is known as thermo-remnant
magnetism(TRM).
● In sedimentary rocks the paramagnetic minerals
may be aligned in the earth’s magnetic field during
their deposition. In case of physical alignment of
the particles during the general process of
sedimentation, the term detrital-remnant
magnetism is used.
● The study of paleomagnetism has made it possible
to find out the directions and dip of the earth’s
magnetic field during different geological periods.
 Our team

ABHIJITH ALEENA
DEEPAN AESHAH AKHIL BABY
RAFEEQUE PRASANNAK
UMAR

AMIYA
VINOD THANK ALEENA
RAMESH
Resources
● A Textbook of Geology - G. B. Mahapatra
● Textbook of Physical Geology – G. B. Mahapatra
● Principles of Engineering Geology – K. M. Bangar
● Structural Geology – Marland R. Billings
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our special thanks to our respected Head of the Department and
Associate Professor of Structural Geology, Davis K .J. for his able guidance and support in
completing the project. I would also like to thank him for providing this opportunity to explore
and improve our skills and knowledge.

Submitted to
Mr. Davis K. J.
HOD of Geology
Sahrdaya College of Advanced Studies,
Kodakara