Plate Tectonics
The Earth’s crust is divided into 12 major plates which are moved in various directions.
This plate motion causes them to collide, pull apart, or scrape against each other.
Each type of interaction causes a characteristic set of Earth structures or “tectonic”
features.
The word, tectonic refers to the deformation of the crust as a consequence of plate
interaction.
Continental Crust
- thick (10-70km)
- buoyant (less dense than oceanic crust)
- mostly old, granite-type rocks
Oceanic Crust
- thin (~7 km)
- dense (sinks under continental crust)
- young, composed of basaltic rocks
Earth gives off heat to cool. The heat energy from Earth’s interior produces the melt that
both makes oceanic plates and moves them around on the Earth.
Convection moves hot material from Earth’s interior up to the surface to cool; gravity
with convection draws the dense material back into the hotter interior; this is an efficient
way for our planet to cool.
divergent boundary is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are
moving away from each other. These areas can form in the middle of continents or on
the ocean floor.
• Where a divergent boundary forms on a continent it is called a RIFT or
CONTINENTAL RIFT, e.g. African Rift Valley.
• Where a divergent boundary forms under the ocean it is called an OCEAN
RIDGE
convergent boundaries are where the plates move towards each other.
There are three types of convergent boundary:
1. continent-continent collision - two plates push against each other and the
crust buckles and cracks, pushing up (and down into the mantle) high
mountain ranges. The process of forming mountains and mountain ranges is
called orogenesis.
For example, the European Alps and Himalayas formed this way.
2. continent-oceanic crust collision - At a convergent boundary where
continental crust pushes against oceanic crust, the oceanic crust which is
thinner and denser than the continental crust, sinks below the continental
crust. This is called a Subduction Zone. Subduction is the convergent
movement whereby a denser plate is pushed beneath a lighter one. Volcanic
arc is also a product of this collision.
Example: Andes mountain range along the western edge of the South
American continent.
3. ocean-ocean collision - When two oceanic plates converge, because they
are dense, one runs over the top of the other causing it to sink into the mantle
and a subduction zone is formed.
The subducting plate is bent down into the mantle to form a deep depression
in the seafloor called a trench.
Trenches are the deepest parts of the ocean and remain largely unexplored.
Example: Marianas trench
transform boundary where plates slide past each other.
The San Andreas fault, adjacent to which the US city of San Francisco is built is
an example of a transform boundary between the Pacific plate and the North
American plate.
Faults are cracks on the earth’s crust, classified according to the kind of motion
that occurs on them:
• Joints - No Movement
• Strike-Slip - Horizontal Motion - Energy reverberates through the crust and
mantle, releasing seismic waves that we feel as an earthquake.
• Dip-Slip - Vertical Motion - movement of faults along the angle of the fault plane
Earthquakes occur when rocks slip along faults, when tectonic plates move
Focus – location of the plate movement where fault rupture actually occurs, where
the tectonic plate rocks start to break and where energy is first released – the origin
of vibrating waves.
Epicenter - the point on the crust of the earth, directly above the focus
Seismic waves:
• P-waves or primary waves travel faster through the ground (longitudinal)
• S-waves or secondary waves produce up and down waves and side to side
motion that cause buildings to sway (transverse)
• P-waves travel faster than S-waves
