Plate Tectonics. By Destiny, Jarrek, Kaidence, and Autumn

Transcription

1 Plate Tectonics By Destiny, Jarrek, Kaidence, and Autumn

2 .The Denali Fault and San Andreas Fault - The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly 1300 km (810 miles) through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal).

3 The Ring of Fire definition General / Misc. The Ring of Fire is a ring of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean that result from subduction of oceanic plates beneath lighter continental plates. Subduction of oceanic lithosphere. Most of the Earth's volcanoes are located around the Pacific Ring of Fire because that the location of most of the Earth's subduction zones.

4 Plate Tectonics Plate Tectonic states that the earths crust and upper mantle are broken into sections, called plates. The plates move around the mantle. The plates are composed with the crust and part of the upper mantle, the parts are called the lithosphere. The layer below the lithosphere is called the asthenosphere. Three ways the plates can move are- move apart, move together, or past each other.

5 How Do the Tectonic Plates Plates Move at our planet's surface? move because of the intense heat in the Earth's core that causes molten rock in the mantle layer to move. It moves in a pattern called a convection cell that forms when warm material rises, cools, and eventually sink down. Scientists once thought that Earth s plates just surfed on top of the mantle s giant convection cells, but now scientists believe that plates help themselves move instead of just surfing along. Just like convection cells, plates have warmer, thinner parts that are more likely to rise, and colder, denser parts that are more likely to sink. New parts of a plate rise because they are warm and the plate is thin. As hot magma rises to the surface at spreading ridges and forms new crust, the new crust pushes the rest of a plate out of its way. This is called ridge push. Old parts of a plate are likely to sink down into the mantle at subduction zones because they are colder and thicker than the warm mantle material underneath them. This is called slab pull.

6 Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large-scale motion of Earth's lithosphere. This theoretical model builds on the concept of continental drift which was developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. DEFINITION FOR: Tectonic Plates

7 The Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire is a major area in the Pacific Ocean, where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions happen. There is a series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movement. Now The Ring of Fire is known for area that is very close to several tectonic plates which may be what influences the volcanic activity in the area. The Pacific Ring of Fire is the name that is given to a horseshoe shaped area in the Pacific Ocean which extends from South America and North America to Eastern Asia, Australia and New Zea Land. This area is famous for its constant seismic activity and because of the amount of active volcanoes that can be found here. 75% of dormant and active volcanoes are found in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Now it is known that the area is very close to several tectonic plates

8 How the plates collide: What happens when plates collide? It depends how the plates are moving when they meet: When two plates collide head-on, they push each other up and form mountains. That's how the Himalayas and other great mountain ranges (including the Rockies, long ago) were created. When one plate dives below another plate, it creates a subduction zone as the diving plate is crushed and melted. This process often creates volcanoes as the magma (molten rock) rises up to the surface.

9 10 fun facts on Tectonic Plates: 1. Slow, but constant movement has broken the lithosphere in many places, dividing the Earth s crust into tectonic plates. 2. Movement happens over millions of years and it s called continental drift. 250 million years ago, all the continents were joined together to make a giant continent called Pangaea. 3. The plates movement happens very slowly. 4. The Red Sea was formed where the African and Arabian plates pulled apart. Now this is pretty cool, the rift is getting larger and some people say that the Red Sea will one day from an ocean. 5. Scientists can now track how tectonic plates move using GPS. 6. Moving plates on our planet converge, separate and slide past each other. 7. Plate movements along the ridge produce small earthquakes that produce P waves and S waves as basalt lava pours out of fissures on the ocean floor. 8. The Pacific Plate: The Pacific Plate contains the largest ocean on Earth. 9. The Theory of Plate Tectonics explains how and why crustal plates move around the Earth. Find out lots of fascinating facts and interesting trivia on plate tectonics. 10. Find out lots of fascinating facts and interesting trivia on plate tectonics.

10 Effects of Plate Tectonics! The horizontal and vertical displacements associated with plate tectonics play a fundamental role in climate change over a wide range of timescales. The solid-earth surface is in direct contact with the atmosphere and oceans and its evolving character affects balances of incoming and outgoing radiation, atmospheric circulation, ocean currents, and the location of elevated terrain suitable for glaciers and ice sheets. Tectonic processes also have important indirect climatic effects through their control on geochemical cycling and the composition of the atmosphere and ocean. This entry provides an introduction to the more direct, physical effects of tectonics on the climate system.

11 END OF PRESENTATION!!!