Plate Tectonics

Physical Geology 13, Chapter 19

Tim Horner
CSUS Geology Department
 Plate Tectonics
• Basic idea of plate tectonics -
Earth’s surface is composed of
a few large, thick plates that
move slowly and change in
size
• Intense geologic activity is
concentrated at plate boundaries, where plates move
away, toward, or past each other
• Combination of continental drift and seafloor spreading
hypotheses in late 1960s
 Evidence for Plate Tectonics
• Fit of the continents
• Similarity of rock sequences
• Location of volcanos
• Location of deep
earthquakes
• Paleomagnetism:
– apparent polar wandering
– seafloor spreading
 Early Case for Continental Drift
• Puzzle-piece fit of coastlines of Africa
and South America has long been known
• In early 1900s, Alfred Wegener noted
South America, Africa, India, Antarctica,
and Australia have almost identical late
Paleozoic rocks and fossils
– Glossopteris (plant), Lystrosaurus and
Cynognathus (animals) fossils found
on all five continents
– Mesosaurus (reptile) fossils found in
Brazil and South Africa only
 Early Case for Continental Drift
• Wegener reassembled continents into the
supercontinent Pangaea
• Pangea initially separated into Laurasia
and Gondwanaland
– Laurasia - northern supercontinent containing
North America and Asia (excluding India)
– Gondwanaland - southern supercontinent
containing South America, Africa, India,
Antarctica, and Australia
• Late Paleozoic glaciation patterns on
southern continents best explained by their
reconstruction into Gondwanaland
• Coal beds of North America and Europe
support reconstruction into Laurasia
 Early Case for Continental Drift

• Reconstructed paleoclimate belts

suggested polar wandering, potential
evidence for Continental Drift
• Continental Drift hypothesis initially
rejected
– Wegener could not come up with viable
driving force
– continents should not be able to “plow
through” sea floor rocks while crumpling
themselves but not the sea floor
 Paleomagnetism and
Continental Drift Revived
• Studies of rock magnetism allowed
determination of magnetic pole locations
(close to geographic poles) through time
• Paleomagnetism uses mineral magnetic
alignment direction and dip angle to
determine the direction and distance to
the magnetic pole when rocks formed
– Steeper dip angles indicate rocks formed
closer to the magnetic poles
• Rocks with increasing age point to pole
locations increasingly far from present
magnetic pole positions
 Paleomagnetism and
Continental Drift Revived
• Apparent polar wander curves for
different continents suggest real
movement relative to one another
• Reconstruction of supercontinents
using paleomagnetic information
fits Africa and South America like
puzzle pieces
– Improved fit results in rock units (and
glacial ice flow directions) precisely
matching up across continent margins
 Seafloor Spreading
• In 1962, Harry Hess proposed
seafloor spreading
– Seafloor moves away from the mid-
oceanic ridge due to mantle convection
– Convection is circulation driven by
rising hot material and/or sinking
cooler material
• Hot mantle rock rises under
mid-oceanic ridge
– Ridge elevation, high heat flow,
and abundant basaltic volcanism
are evidence of this
 Seafloor Spreading
• Seafloor rocks, and mantle rocks beneath them, cool and become
more dense with distance from mid-oceanic ridge
• When sufficiently cool and dense, these rocks may sink back into
the mantle at subduction zones
– Downward plunge of cold rocks gives rise to oceanic trenches
• Overall young age for sea floor rocks (everywhere <200 million
years) is explained by this model
 Plates and Plate Motion
• Tectonic plates are composed of the
relatively rigid lithosphere
– Lithospheric thickness and age of
seafloor increase with distance
from mid-oceanic ridge
• Plates “float” upon ductile asthenosphere
• Plates interact at their boundaries, which are
classified by relative plate motion
– Plates move apart at divergent boundaries, together at
convergent boundaries, and slide past one another at
transform boundaries
 Evidence of Plate Motion

• Marine magnetic anomalies - bands

of stronger and weaker than average
magnetic field strength
– Parallel mid-oceanic ridges
– Field strength related to basalts
magnetized with same and opposite
polarities as current magnetic field
– Symmetric “bar-code” anomaly pattern
reflects plate motion away from ridge
coupled with magnetic field reversals
– Matches pattern of reversals seen in
continental rocks (Vine and Matthews)
 Evidence of Plate Motion

• Seafloor age increases with

distance from mid-oceanic ridge
– Rate of plate motion equals
distance from ridge divided
by age of rocks
– Symmetric age pattern reflects
plate motion away from ridge
 Evidence of Plate Motion
• Mid-oceanic ridges are offset
along fracture zones
– Fracture zone segment between offset ridge
crests is a transform fault
– Relative motion along fault is result of
seafloor spreading from adjacent ridges
• Plate motion can be measured
using satellites, radar, lasers and
global positioning systems
– Measurements accurate to within 1 cm
– Motion rates closely match those predicted
using seafloor magnetic anomalies
 Divergent Plate Boundaries
• At divergent plate boundaries, plates
move away from each other
– Can occur in the middle of the ocean or
within a continent
– Divergent motion eventually creates a new
ocean basin
• Marked by rifting, basaltic volcanism,
and eventual ridge uplift
– During rifting, crust is stretched and thinned
– Graben valleys mark rift zones
– Volcanism common as magma rises through
thinner crust along normal faults
– Ridge uplift by thermal expansion of hot rock
 Transform Plate Boundaries
• At transform plate boundaries, plates
slide horizontally past one another
– Marked by transform faults
– Transform faults may connect:
• Two offset segments of mid-oceanic ridge
• A mid-oceanic ridge and a trench
• Two trenches
– Transform offsets of mid-oceanic ridges
allow series of straight-line segments to
approximate curved boundaries required
by spheroidal Earth
 Convergent Plate Boundaries
• At convergent plate boundaries,
plates move toward one another
• Nature of boundary depends on plates
involved (oceanic vs. continental)
– Ocean-ocean plate convergence
• Marked by ocean trench, Benioff zone, and
volcanic island arc
– Ocean-continent plate convergence
• Marked by ocean trench, Benioff zone,
volcanic arc, and mountain belt
– Continent-Continent plate convergence
• Marked by mountain belts and thrust faults
 What Causes Plate Motions?
• Causes of plate motion are not yet fully
understood, but any proposed mechanism
must explain why:
– Mid-oceanic ridges are hot and elevated, while
trenches are cold and deep
– Ridge crests have tensional cracks
– The leading edges of some plates are subducting
sea floor, while others are continents (which
cannot subduct)
• Mantle convection may be the cause or an
effect of circulation set up by ridge-push
and/or slab-pull
 Movement of Plate Boundaries
• Plate boundaries can move over time
– Mid-oceanic ridge crests can migrate
toward or away from subduction zones or
abruptly jump to new positions
– Convergent boundaries can migrate if
subduction angle steepens or overlying
plate has a trenchward motion of its own
• Back-arc spreading may occur, but is poorly
understood
– Transform boundaries can shift as slivers
of plate shear off
• San Andreas fault shifted eastward about five
million years ago and may do so again
 Mantle Plumes and Hot Spots

• Mantle plumes - narrow columns of hot

mantle rock rise through the mantle
– Stationary with respect to moving plates
– Large mantle plumes may spread out and
tear apart the overlying plate
• Flood basalt eruptions
• Rifting apart of continental land masses
– New divergent boundaries may form
 Mantle Plumes and Hot Spots
• Mantle plumes may form “hot spots”
of active volcanism at Earth’s surface
– Approximately 45 known hotspots
• Hot spots in the interior of a plate
produce volcanic chains
– Orientation of the volcanic chain shows
direction of plate motion over time
– Age of volcanic rocks can be used to
determine rate of plate movement
– Hawaiian islands are a good example
 Plate Tectonics and Ore Deposits
• Metallic ore deposits often located
near plate boundaries
– Commonly associated with igneous activity
• Divergent plate boundaries often marked
hot springs on sea floor
– Mineral-rich hot springs (black smokers)
deposit metal ores on sea floor
• Hydrothermal circulation near
island arcs can produce metal-
rich magmatic fluids