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Plate Tectonics. A Brief Overview. The Earth ’ s Plates. http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/pltec/pltec2.html. Layers of the Earth. Chemical. Physical. http://www.burkemuseum.org/static/geo_history_wa/The%20Restless%20Earth%20v.2.0.htm. Layers of the Earth and Food. Lithosphere
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Plate Tectonics A Brief Overview
The Earth’s Plates http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/pltec/pltec2.html
Layers of the Earth • Chemical • Physical http://www.burkemuseum.org/static/geo_history_wa/The%20Restless%20Earth%20v.2.0.htm
Layers of the Earth and Food • Lithosphere • Chocolate: when it’s cold, it’s hard and breaks, but as it warms up it can bend and eventually melt • Asthenosphere • Honey: it’s thick and sticky, but it flows • Mantle • Crumbled cookies: it’s solid but can move and convect • Outer core • Milk: liquid • Inner core • Peach pit: solid
Plate Boundaries Stern, R. J., Subduction zones, Rev. Geophys., 40(4), 1012, doi:10.1029/2001RG000108, 2002
Margins: Divergent • Mid-Ocean Ridges • Mid Atlantic Ridge • Continental Rifts • East African Rift Valley http://www.phschool.com/atschool/phsciexp/internet_activity/cfd-1014_midocean.html http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0006339.html
Margins: Convergent • Ocean-ocean subduction • Island arc: Marianas http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/structure/dynamicearth/subduction/cordillera_islandarc.htm
Margins: Convergent • Ocean-continent subduction • Volcanic arc and mountains: Andes http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/structure/dynamicearth/subduction/cordillera_islandarc.htm
Margins: Convergent • Continent-continent collision • Large mountain range: Himalayas and Alps http://www.unil.ch/igp/page23575_en.html
Margins: Transform • Marine • Transform faults: • Mid Atlantic Ridge • Terrestrial • Strike-slip faults: • San Andreas Fault http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/archive/socal/geology/inland_empire/socal_faults.html
Evidence for Plate Tectonics • Fit of the continents • Sea floor ages and magnetic anomalies – evidence of ocean spreading • Paleontology – similar species on now widely separated continents • Seismicity and volcanism concentrated at plate boundaries – evidence of oceanic subduction • Hot spot tracks – record movement of plates over “fixed” hot spot • GPS