PLATE TECTONICS GLG.

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WHAT IS PLATE TECTONICS?
• Tectonics is the study of the origin and arrangement of broad
structural features of the Earth’s surface: from faults and folds, to
mountain belts, earthquake belts and whole continents
• Tectonic Models are unifying explanations of the tectonic processes
that give rise to different structural and tectonic features in
different locations
• Plate Tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the Earth’s
surface to be divided into several large lithospheric plates that
move slowly relative to one another and change in size
• Movement of these plates lead to tectonic activity, earthquakes,
volcanism and deformation, concentrated at the various types of
plate boundaries
THE BASIS
The idea of plate tectonics was built up from 2 main hypotheses:
• Continental Drift
• Sea-floor Spreading
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
• From the time when the coastlines of the Atlantic were mapped by
explorers it was noticed that there was a remarkable fit of the western
coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South America
 Earliest explanations were first catastrophic and linked to the idea of the biblical flood
 Later explanations were uniformitarian

• Continental Drift was first proposed by Alfred Wagener who studied

fossil flora and fauna as well as rock formations in the southern
hemisphere (South America, Southern Africa and Australia)
• He postulated that at that time all the continents were joined together
under a single landmass which he called Pangea (“All the Earth”)
• His ideas weren’t accepted initially because he couldn’t give a
plausible explanation for what made the continents to drift
Wegener’s reconstruction of the
continents (Pangea), with
paleoclimatic indicators, and
paleopoles and equator for (a)
Carboniferous and (b) Permian
time. I, ice; C, coal; S, salt; G,
gypsum; D, desert sandstone;
hatched areas, arid zones
EVIDENCE FOR CONTINENTAL DRIFT
1. Geological Evidence: From continental reconstructions, the
continuity of geologic structures, stratigraphic formations and rock
provinces across continents currently separated by ocean.
2. Paleoclamatic Evidence: Presence of paleoclimatic indicators in
places suggesting North-South movement of the continents, eg the
distribution of glacial, eolian and carbonate formations
3. Paleontological Evidence: Distribution of fossil terrestrial and
shallow marine plants and animals across continents now
separated by wide ocean suggests that they were once joined
4. Paleomagnetism and Polar Wandering…
5. Geodesy: The use of accurate GPS measurements have enabled us
to actually observe plate motions in real time. The hardest
evidence of continental drift
Distribution of plant and animal fossils that are found on the continents of South America, Africa, Antarctica,
India, and Australia give evidence for the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. Glossopteris and other
fernlike plants are found in Permian- and Pennsylvanian-age rocks on all five continents. Cynognathus and
Lystrosaurus were sheep-sized land reptiles that lived during the Early Triassic Period. Fossils of the
freshwater reptile Mesosaurus are found in Permian-age rocks on the southern tip of Africa and South
America.
PALEOMAGNETISM
• The science of paleomagnetism is concerned with studies of the fossil
magnetism that is retained in certain rocks.
• If this magnetism originated at the time the rock was formed,
measurement of its direction can be used to determine the latitude at
which the rock was created.
• If this latitude differs from the present latitude at which the rock is
found, very strong evidence has been furnished that it has moved over
the surface of the Earth.
• If it can also be shown that the pattern of movement of movement
differs from that of the rocks of the same age on a different continent
relative movement must have occurred between them.
• Paleomagnetism demonstrated that continental drift had taken place
and provided the first quantitative estimates of relative continental
movements.
POLAR WANDERING
• Paleomagnetic data can be displayed in two ways.
 One way is to image what is believed to be the true situation, that is, plot the
continent in a succession of positions according to the ages of the sampling sites
 The other way is to regard the continent as remaining at a fixed position and plot the
apparent positions of the poles for various times to provide an apparent polar wander
(APW) path

• The observation that the apparent position of the pole differed for
rocks of different ages on the same continent demonstrates that the
continents moved over the surface of the earth
• The fact that apparent polar wander paths are different for
different continents shows that relative movements of the continents
have taken place.
Two methods of displaying paleomagnetic data:
(a) assuming fixed magnetic poles and applying latitudinal shifts to the
continent;
(b) assuming a fixed continent and plotting a polar wander path. Subsequent
work has modified the detail of the movements shown. Note that the south pole
has been plotted
Apparent polar wander paths for North America (solid circles and solid line) and Europe
(open circles and dashed line) (a) with North America and Europe in their present positions,
and (b) after closing the Atlantic ocean. Ages
for each mean pole position are given in Ma with those for Europe in italics
APW path for Gondwana
SEA FLOOR SPREADING
• With the advent of sonar and magnetic surveying techniques lead
to the discovery of the, before then, hidden structure of the ocean
floor
• The presence of the mid-ocean ridges and trenches had no
equivalent on the continents
• In contrast to the continents, the oceanic areas are very young
geologically (probably no greater than 200 Ma in age) and of
uniform composition
• Horizontal, or lateral, movements have been all-important during
their history of formation unlike the continents.
 SEA FLOOR SPREADING: THE IDEA
• In 1961, following intensive surveying of
the sea floor during post-war years,
Robert .S. Dietz proposed the mechanism
of “sea floor spreading” to explain
continental drift.
 The concept was conceived 2 years earlier by Rear
Admiral Harry H. Hess.

• He suggested that continents move in

response to the growth of ocean basins
between them, and that oceanic crust is
created from the Earth’s mantle at the
crest of the mid-ocean ridge system.
• The lateral motion of the oceanic crust was
believed to be driven by convection
currents in the upper mantle in the fashion
of a conveyer belt.
• In order to keep the surface area of the
Earth constant, it was further proposed
that the oceanic crust is thrust back down
into the mantle and resorbed at oceanic
trenches.
SEA FLOOR SPREADING - CONFIRMATION
• Marine magnetic surveys of the sea-floor showed linear strips of high positive
and negative magnetic anomalies
• It had also been discovered by studies of magnetized rocks on land that the
earth magnetic field has undergone multiple reversals throughout geologic time
• Frederick .J. Vine and Drummond H. Matthews that the magnetic lineations of
the sea floor might be explained in terms of sea floor spreading and reversals
of the Earth’s magnetic field. (The Vine-Matthews Hypothesis)
• On this model the conveyor belt of oceanic crust is viewed as a tape recorder
which registers the history of reversals of the Earth’s magnetic field.
• The evidence for this is that the anomaly pattern should match the predicted
pattern from magnetic data on land
• Also the sea floor anomaly pattern should correctly be able to predict the age
of the sea floor
Interpretation of a magnetic anomaly profile across the Juan de Fuca ridge, northeastern Pacific
Ocean, in terms of normal and reversed magnetizations of two-dimensional rectangular blocks of
oceanic layer 2. The arrow marks the ridge crest
Magnetic lineations either side of
the mid-Atlantic ridge south of
Iceland. Positive anomalies in black
A geomagnetic polarity
timescale for the past 160
Ma together with oceanic
magnetic anomaly
numbers
Sea floor spreading and the generation of magnetic lineations by the Vine-Matthews
hypothesis
TRANSFORM FAULTS
• Sea floor spreading proposes how oceanic crust is created (at mid
ocean ridges) and destroyed at subduction zones.
• But the question still remains as to where Ridges and Trenches
terminate horizontally
• Wilson proposed that the ends of these features were linked by a
new class of faults which he called transform faults.
• At these faults there is neither creation nor destruction of
lithosphere, but rather the motion is strike-slip, with adjacent
lithosphere in tangential motion.
Two possible explanations for the relationship between fracture zones and the mid-oceanic
ridge. (A) The expected rock motions and earthquake distribution assuming that the ridge
was once continuous across the fracture zone. (B) The expected rock motions and earthquake
distribution assuming that the two ridge segments were never joined together and that
the sea floor moves away from the rift valley segments. Only explanation (B) fits the data. The
portion of the fracture zone between the ridge segments is a transform fault.
PLATE BOUNDARIES
PLATE BOUNDARIES
• A plate can be viewed geometrically as a cap on a sphere
• The border between two adjacent plates is known as a plate
boundary.
• During plate movement the plate interior stays coherent and
undeformed relative to the boundaries.
• 3 types of plate boundaries:
 Divergent Plate Boundaries
 Convergent Plate Boundaries
 Transform Plate Boundaries
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
• Also known as constructive or accretive plate margins.
• Boundaries where plates are diverging.
• Magma and depleted mantle upwell between the separating plates
giving rise to new oceanic lithosphere.
• Divergent motion is usually perpendicular to the strike of the plate
boundary.
• Ocean ridges are the features that mark divergent plate
boundaries.
RIFTS AND RIFTING
• Divergent plate motions on continetal crust are marked by the
formation of rifts
• Rifts elongate structures consisting of mainly normal faults (grabens
and half-grabens and horsts) that form as a result of the stretching
of the earth crust.
• Rifting is marked by uplift, basaltic volcanism and shallow focus
earthquakes
• Continuous rifting will lead to the splitting apart of the continental
crust and the creation of new oceanic floor: the process of sea floor
spreading
• In some cases rifting doesn’t lead to sea floor spreading and the
formation of continental crust and the rift structure is preserved as
what is known as a failed rift.
The East African Rift System
PASSIVE CONTINENTAL MARGINS
• The Rifted ends of the continental crust sink and subside as they move away
from the newly formed mid oceanic ridge.
• These subsiding margins become regions of deposition of thick sediments
eroded from the continent.
• It is also a region of no tectonic activity called a Passive Continental Margin
TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
• Also known as conservative
plate margins
• Marked by tangential motions
in which adjacent plates in
relative motion are neither
constructive or destructive
• Relative motion is parallel to a
kind of strike slip fault known
as a transform fault.
• Transform faults connect one
type of plate boundary to
another and transfers
displacement across them
 CONVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES
• Also known as destructive plate margins
• They mark the boundaries where 2 plates are converging.
• This occurs by the oceanic lithosphere of one of the plates being
thrust underneath the other and absorbed into the sub-lithospheric
mantle in a process known as subduction.
• The places where subduction occurs are known as oceanic trenches.
• Also included are places where 2 continental plate margins collide
known as collision zones. These are zone of intense compressional
deformation and the formation of Himalayan type orogens or
mountain belts.
• They are marked by volvanic activity, compressive tectonic features
and structures like thrust faults, folds and high grade metamophism
PLATE DRIVING FORCES
• The question of what drives the movement of plates is still controversial
• The general consensus is the convection-cell model which states that
convection driven flow in the mantle drives the plates
• Plates are carried on the back of the convecting asthenosphere
upwelling at the ocean ridges and downwelling at subduction zones.
• The asthenosphere moves the lithospheric plates by exerting a basal
drag (a shear stress) on its base.
• The problem with this model is that no model of global convection cell
geometry could be devised that explained the current observed geometry
of the plate boundaries.
• 2 other forces were therefore proposed as playing a major role in
driving plate motions
RIDGE-PUSH
• The outward directed force that pushes plates away from the axis
of the mid-ocean ridge
• It exists because the oceanic lithosphere is higher along the ridges
than on the abyssal plains away from the ridge
• This means that the ridge has a higher gravitational potential
energy than the lithosphere of the abyssal plain
• This energy provides the outward push perpendicular to the ridge
axis
SLAB-PULL
• The force that pulls the lithosphere into the convergent margin
• It exists because old cold lithosphere is negatively buoyant relative
to the asthenosphere so it can sink downwards.
• Once the subducting slab sinks downwards phase transformations
change the basalt into much denser eclogite
• This heavy sinking slab pulls the rest of the plate with it