Continental drift hypothesis:

evidence?

 Proposed in 1911
 All evidence found on the continents
 Mechanism for moving the continents was not
known
Continental Drift Hypothesis
 Alfred Wegener proposed
the hypothesis of
continental drift in 1911
 He gathered information
from many different
sources and used it as
evidence for his
hypothesis
 Continental Drift Hypothesis
 Fit of the continents
 Fossil evidence
 Ancient mountain ranges
 Past climate evidence

Swamps formed in tropical regions

Glaciers formed at the south pole

 The continental
drift hypothesis
proposes that
the continents
were assembled
to form the
super continent
Pangaea.
 Moved through
time

3:20
Fit of Continents
 Antonio Snider-Pelligrini
(1858), a geographer cut
out a map of Africa and
South America suggesting
they were connected at one
time
 Other physical evidence
based on observation was
used by Wegener
 Fossil Evidence

 Similar terrestrial species were found on many

continents now separated by oceans.
 Information collected by paleontologists
 Ancient Mountain Ranges

The same sequence of rocks is found in North America,

Great Brittan, and Norway. The pattern does not make
sense with the continents in their current configuration.
 The Appalachian Mountains

Swamps
300 million years ago
 Evidence of
Ancient Glaciers

•Glaciers carve the rock as they move.

•Scientists can determine the direction of movement (notice the
direction of movement noted in South America)
•As South America sits today, the pattern would not make sense.
(glaciers do not move from sea level to higher elevations)
Seafloor Spreading
 In the 1963, Harry
Hess developed the
idea of seafloor
spreading to explain
the seafloor’s
formation
 Continental movement
is the result of ocean
floor movement
 Seafloor Spreading

 Mafic lava is extruded along the mid-oceanic ridge to produce

ocean floor.
 New material is added, the cooler material is split and is
“pushed” away from the ridge
 Driving Mechanisms

Convection cells within

the mantle
Pus
h
Pushing at the mid-
oceanic ridges
Pul
Pulling at the subduction l
zones Convect
ion
 Seafloor
features
 Mid-oceanic
ridges
 Trenches
 Volcanism
adjacent to
trenches
 Seamounts
 Fracture zones
 Age of Ocean Crust

 Youngest at ridge
 Progressively older away from ridge
 Mirror image across the ridge
 Paleomagnetic pattern across the
mid-oceanic ridge
Negative
anomalies Positive
= reverse anomalies=
polarities normal
polarities

Mirror image across the ridge and correlative with age

 Polar
Reversals
 Correlated to time
 Scientists dated iron-
rich volcanic rocks on
land
 Developed technology
to measure the
paleomagnetic reading
 Polar Reversals

 Timescale of polar
reversals
 Possibly related to
flow in the outer
core
 Paleomagnetic Evidence

 Positive and negative recordings of the

oceanic crust create a symmetrical pattern
across the mid-oceanic trench
 Theory of Plate Tectonics
 Plate Tectonics
A. Theory of Plate Tectonics is the idea that
the Earth’s crust and upper mantle are broken
into sections called plates that move around
on the mantle.
B. Composition of the Earth’s plates:
1. Lithosphere – the crust and part of the
upper mantle
2. Asthenosphere – the plastic-like layer
below the lithosphere
Plate Tectonics
 What are the tectonic plates?

AKA: Lithospheric plate

 The ~100-km-thick surface of the Earth;
 Contains crust and part of the upper mantle;
 It is rigid and brittle;
 Fractures to produce earthquakes.
 Three Basic Types of Plate Boundaries
Divergent

Transform
Convergent

USGS Graphics
 Plate Movement
 “Plates” of lithosphere are moved around by the
underlying hot mantle convection cells
 Plate Boundaries
 There are three different plate boundaries:

Divergent Boundaries
Convergent Boundaries
Transform Boundaries
 Divergent Boundaries
 Divergent Boundaries are the boundaries
between two plates that are diverging, or
moving away from each other.
Age of Oceanic Crust

Courtesy of www.ngdc.noaa.gov
Iceland: An example of continental rifting
 Iceland has a divergent plate
boundary running through its
middle
 Convergent Boundaries
 Convergent Boundaries are the boundaries
between two plates that are converging, or
moving towards each other.
 There are three types of convergent
boundaries:
1. An ocean floor plate collides with a less dense
continental plate.
2. An ocean floor plate collides with another
ocean floor plate.
3. A continental plate collides with another
continental plate.
  Oceanic-Continental

Oceanic-Oceanic 

 Continental-Continental
Himalayas
 Transform Fault Boundaries
 Transform Boundaries are the boundaries
between two plates that are sliding
horizontally past one another.
 Transform Boundaries
 Where plates slide past each other

Above: View of the San Andreas

transform fault
 Earthquakes
There are thousands of small earthquakes every day
“Strong” earthquakes (~M7) occur once a month. >M8 occur about once/year.

Where are the deepest earthquakes?

For earthquakes of the past 2 weeks, go to http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

 Earthquakes & Plate Boundaries
Notice that the earthquakes coincide with plate boundaries,
and the deepest quakes (blue) are in subduction zones.

Question: Where would you expect to see volcanoes?

Create your own maps at http://www.iris.edu/quakes/maps.htm Modified from USGS Graphics

 Volcanoes & Plate Boundaries
This map shows that locations of volcanoes (ones above sea
level) also tend to occur along the plate boundaries

Modified from USGS Graphics

 Tectonic Plates
How fast are the plates moving?
Plates move 1-10 centimeters per year (≈ rate of fingernail growth).

Fingernail growth plotted: http://jclahr.com/science/earth_science/thumbnail/index.html Modified from USGS Graphics

 Effects of Plate Tectonics
 Landforms caused by plate tectonics:
a. rift valleys (divergent boundaries)
b. mountain ranges (continental-continental
convergent boundaries)
c. volcanoes (oceanic-continental
convergent boundaries)
d. faults (transform boundaries)
 Causes of Plate Tectonics
 Convection Current is the driving force of
plate tectonics in which hot, plastic-like
material from the mantle rises to the
lithosphere, moves horizontally, cools, and
sinks back to the mantle.
 The convection currents provide enough
energy to move the plates in the lithosphere.
Quick Review of Plate Boundaries
 Plate Tectonics Summary
 The Earth is made up of 3 main layers (core,
mantle, crust)
 On the surface of the Earth are tectonic plates that
slowly move around the globe
 Plates are made of crust and upper mantle
(lithosphere)
 There are 2 types of plate
 There are 3 types of plate boundaries
 Volcanoes and Earthquakes are closely linked to
the margins of the tectonic plates