Conversations with the Earth Tom Burbine tburbine@framingham.edu

1. Conversations with the EarthTom Burbinetburbine@framingham.edu

2. Next week • No class

3. Midterm • March 24 • You can bring in a sheet of paper with anything written on it • You can bring in your hand-written mineral sheets

4. Rocks on the Surface • If you can see rocks on the surface that comes from the interior, you can study them

6. Rocks can deform and flow • Easier for rock to deform and flow when it is warmer

7. Lithosphere • Lithosphere is a planet’s outer layer of cool and relatively rigid rock • Asthenosphere is the region in the upper mantle characterized by low-density, semiplastic (or partially molten) rock material chemically similar to the overlying lithosphere

10. Heating of Planet

11. How does the planetary interior cool off? • Heat is transported outward

12. How does the planetary interior cool off?

14. Plate Tectonics • Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere.

15. Pangea • Pangea - One large supercontinent http://geology.csupomona.edu/drjessey/class/Gsc101/pangea.gif

18. Principles of Plate Tectonics • 1. The surface of the Earth is composed of lithospheric plates that are in constant motion. • The plates move in response to plastic flow in the athenosphere. • Motion in the asthenosphere is caused by convection driven by the Earth’s internal heat. • The internal heat comes from radioactive decay and the latent heat from the Earth’s formation.

19. Three Types of Plate Tectonic Boundaries • Divergent – plates move apart, space is filled with molten magma • Convergent – plates collide • Transform – plates slide horizontally past each other

20. Divergent plate boundary

22. Convergent Plate Boundary

26. Hot spots

28. Transform Boundaries

29. Any Questions?