ERSC 1P92 (Extreme Earth)

Week 2
Module 3: Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics

Module 3.1 Plate Tectonics

 Definition of Plate Tectonics
 Plate: The Earth's crust consists of a number of mobile plates, masses of crust that move
independently of adjacent plates (see figure above).
 Tectonics: dealing with structural features of the Earth (e.g., mountains, ocean basins).
 Plate Tectonics: The process that involves the interaction of moving crustal plates and
results in major structural features of the Earth.
 A unifying theory in geology that explains a wide range of geologic phenomena.
 What did the modern theory replace?
o We saw in Module 1 that science evolves as new information is discovered.
Modern geologists accept plate tectonics as an ongoing global process that forms
a basis for explaining many natural phenomena. Prior to the discovery of plate
tectonics geologists had come up with other hypotheses to explain many of the
features that are now known to be entirely consistent with plate tectonics. As we
shall see later in this section, once many scientists "buy in" to an overarching
theory it is hard to replace that theory no matter how much evidence is amassed.
We can call this "knowledge inertia" and define it as a resistance to new
knowledge by those who have spent their careers doing research and publishing
results that are fundamental wrong because of some underlying theory. The best
scientists are willing to honestly evaluate new hypotheses and accept changes that
are supported by observations. In the case of plate tectonics, it replaced the
notion that the Earth shrank over time.
 Shrinking (contracting) Earth Theory
o Theory that the Earth contracted or shrank over geologic time and resulted in the
formation of mountains, ocean basins, and other geological features.
o Shrinking resulted in a reduction of the volume of material making up the Earth
and a reduction in its diameter. To accommodate the reduced volume and
diameter the rigid crust would have to shorten by folding and buckling. On the
shrunken surface the topographic highs become continental masses and mountains
and the topographic lows become lakes and ocean basins (see the figure above).
o First proposed by Giordano Bruno (16th century) who compared the process to
the drying of an apple.
o Lord Kelvin (19th century) suggested that shrinking was due to cooling of the
Earth. He said that, like metal objects, when heated up their volume is largest and
becomes smaller as the metal cools.
 The problems with this mechanism:
o Fossils are preserved in rocks that are folded and faulted. The fossils are of living
organisms that lived on Earth prior to deformation (and presumed shrinkage) but
would not have been able to withstand the initial high temperatures.
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o Initial temperatures required for the amount of shrinkage needed to produce

mountains and ocean basins were too high to be realistic.
 Other mechanisms of shrinkage:
o Extrusion of molten rock from within the Earth (like a tube of toothpaste).
o This is not a plausible cause of shrinkage because amount of extrusive rock
present is not enough to explain the crustal shortening that would be needed.
 Chemical shrinkage (1920s) by:
1. Decay of elements within the Earth to Helium which would escape to the
atmosphere, reducing the volume of the Earth's interior.
2. Combination of elements within the earth to form denser elements.
 Neither process is known to take place!
 Shrinking Earth Theory: Was widely accepted but was really a scientific house of cards!

Module 3.2 Continental Drift

 Continental Drift
o Continental drift is the idea that the continents were once all together but
have drifted apart over millions of years.
o The notion that the continents were once joined together was first proposed by
Abraham Ortelius, a Dutch map maker, who worked with early maps that outlined
the coasts of the old and new worlds as they were known in 1596 (see map,
below). He noticed that the coastal outlines on either side of the Atlantic Ocean
seemed to match like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. This led Ortelius to not only
suggest that the Americas and Europe and Africa were once joined as the outlines
suggested but were "torn away" from each other by "earthquakes and floods".
o In 1858 Antonio Snider-Pellegrini drew the first maps (below) showing the
continents before and after separation.
 The founder of modern Continental Drift
o Alfred Wegener became the "father of Continental Drift" by amassing
considerable supporting evidence that continents moved over time.
o Born: Germany, 1880
o PhD: Astronomy
o Profession: Meteorologist and Greenland Explorer.
o Died: 1930
o In 1915 Wegener published his work in The Origin of the Continents and
Oceans. Like many others, Wegener noted the similarity in the shape of the
coastlines of Africa and South America. This realization prompted him to look for
other evidence that the continents were once together as the jigsaw fit suggests.
 Wegener's Evidence:
o Paleontological Evidence
o The presence of fossils of now extinct organisms found only over small areas of
now separate continents (how did they get from continent to continent?).
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o Wegener argued that the only way that these fossils could be distributed like this
would be if the continents were together (as shown on the following map) at the
time that the species existed.
 Paleoclimatic Evidence
o The following figure illustrates that in the modern world glaciers are found near
the north and south poles.
o Deserts are largely found in bands that are parallel to the equator.
o Extensive reef complexes also lie along the equator.
 The locations of glaciers, deserts and reefs are all determined by climatic conditions that
would have exerted the same control over their distribution in the past.
 Ancient deposits of deserts and reefs that are several hundred million years old are found
in bands that do not parallel the modern equator (see below).
 If we assume that the poles and equator have not moved over time, the continents must
have been in different positions than they are today; the map below shows the position
that the continents must have been in, with respect to the poles and the equator, at the
time that the ancient reef and desert deposits were formed.
 The following figure shows that glacial deposits that are several hundred million years
old are widely distributed with no real relationship to the current polar positions.

 The white areas show positions of ancient glacial deposits on the modern continents. The
arrows show the direction that the glaciers moved as they laid down the ancient deposits.
Modern polar glaciers flow outward, more or less away from the poles where the ice is
thickest.
 Wegener suggested that the glacial deposits formed when continents were clustered
together at the south pole as shown below.
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 Geological evidence
o Bodies of similar rocks are found on South America and Africa that suggest that
the continents were once joined. Cratons are bodies of rock that are very old and
largely made up of igneous and metamorphic rocks.
o Cratons are typically surrounded by younger sedimentary rocks that are often
called "mobile belts".
o The boundaries of several cratons and mobile belts can be traced across the
continents that are now separated by the deep Atlantic Ocean basin (see the figure
below).
o This distribution of cratons and mobile belts suggest that the two continents were
once fit together as shown in the next map.
 Wegener's Conclusions:
o This and other evidence that the continents were once together in the past and that
the "shrinking Earth" theory was seriously flawed led Wegener to suggest that the
continents had been joined together in the past and that they had moved apart over
time. Wegener's evidence led him to postulate that the continents had, at one
time, made up a single supercontinent that he called "Pangea". The continents
had subsequently moved apart due to lateral pushing by gravitational forces that
derived from the sun and the moon (similar to tides).
o The following illustration shows Wegener's reconstruction of the distribution of
the continents within Pangea several hundred million years ago.
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 Wegener's ideas were strongly challenged by the scientific community.

 They suggested alternative interpretations of his paleontological data:
o They suggested that animals may have been carried from continent to continent
by natural rafts.
o Some suggested that animals could move between continent by way of isthmuses
or land bridges that no longer exist.
o Others suggested that in the past there were island chains that made it possible for
animals to travel long distances between separate continents by a series of
relatively short steps.
 Paleoclimate evidence was explained by movement of the poles rather than the
continents. Other evidence was refuted as being "coincidence" or just being incorrect.
 Errors in Wegener's data led to easy arguments against some conclusions. For example
he had predicted that North America and Europe were moving away from each other at
the rate of 250 cm/ year......an impossible rate (we now know that they are moving apart
at a rate up to 3cm per year).
 The second biggest problem: the mechanism that Wegener proposed was impossible and
easily demonstrated to be so.
 The biggest problem was that Wegener's ideas were contrary to the dogma of the day.
 By 1930 there were few geologists who believed Wegener's hypothesis.
 He died while on an expedition to Greenland, two days after his 50th birthday.
 Over the next 20 years any suggestion of moving continents was received with strong
opposition.
 Geologists who discovered evidence to support continental drift found that their ideas
were not taken seriously by the geologic community. PhD candidates whose work
supported the notion of moving continents were denied their degrees unless they found
other means of explaining their data.
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Module 3.3 Modern Plate Tectonics

 A mechanism for plate movement is discovered
o By the late 1950s and the early 1960s groups of geologists were coming to believe
that Wegener may have been correct about moving continents but his proposed
mechanism for their movement remained unsupported.
o However, as more and more information became known about the nature of the
deep ocean geologists began to see a picture coming together that was entirely
consistent with moving continents.
o Maps of the deep ocean basins (see below) that were produced following the
Second World War identified a chain of submarine volcanic mountains that
circled the world. These mountains were formed by magma from deep within the
crust that rose to the surface.
 The mid-ocean ridge, or oceanic ridge, has the following characteristics.
o Average width approx. 1,000 km.
o The ridge rises up to 3 km above the surrounding seafloor.
o Average depth of the ridge is approx. 2.3 km below sea level.
o A kilometre deep valley or "trough" runs along much of the length of the ridge.
 The diagram below illustrates the details of the morphology of the North Atlantic Ridge.
 In the early 1960s studies of the seafloor indicated that the youngest oceanic crust is that
crust that is immediately adjacent to the axis of the oceanic ridge and the crust becomes
progressively older at locations that are increasingly distant from the ridge. This
observation was first recognized in studies of the magnetism of oceanic crust which
allowed the interpretation of its relative age. The map, below, shows the age of oceanic
crust; the colour of the seafloor corresponded to the various ages indicated on the bar at
the bottom of the map. Note that the youngest oceanic crust (shown in red) lies along the
oceanic ridge whereas the oldest oceanic crust like the 180 million year old crust (shown
in blue) is located adjacent to the east coast of the United States and the west coast of
northern Africa.
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 The youngest crust, along the oceanic ridges, is being formed by the modern volcanic
activity that characterizes the oceanic ridge. That the crust becomes older with increasing
distance away from the ridge axis suggests that crust forms along the ridge but is
subsequently pushed away from the ridge (on either side) over time. Thus, the oceanic
crust off the coasts of eastern North America and western north Africa is approximately
the same age and formed when both continents were much closer to the ridge. This
means that the two land masses were close together about 180 million years ago, just as
Wegener had suggested!
 The process of adding new material to the crust along the ridge axes and the gradual
movement away on either side of the ridge is a process that we now call seafloor
spreading and is the driving mechanism for moving the crust, including the continents. 
Of course this process begs the question "if new crust is being added to the Earth along
the oceanic ridges why is it that the Earth's diameter more or less constant over time"? 
Because the Earth's diameter is not expanding the answer must be that as crust is added
along oceanic ridges other crust must be removed at some other location.  As geologists
explored this question they realized that crust is consumed along another feature of the
deep ocean called "oceanic trenches" where crust sinks downward into the mantle.  The
details of this process, called "subduction" is described later in this section.
 Oceanic trenches are the deepest parts of the world's oceans. The following map shows
the location of all of the major oceanic trenches. These are long, linear troughs on the
seafloor that range from 50 to 100 km in width and reach depths that may exceed 11km
below sea level (the Marianas Trench reaches a depth of 10,994 +/-40m). The longest
trench is the Peru-Chile Trench which lies off the western coast of South America,
extending for a total of over 5,900 km.
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 Modern Plate Tectonics

o In the first module, within the section GEOL 101, you learned about the structure
of the Earth and its internal temperature. Here's a summary of some important
points regarding the Earth's crust :
 The crust of the Earth is attached to the Lithosphere, which is the rigid top
of the mantel, and both "float" on the underlying mantle.
 The crust includes "Continental Crust" and "Oceanic Crust". Continental
crust is relatively thick (averaging 35 km) and made up of rock with an
average composition like that of the igneous rock granite.
 Crust under the major ocean basins (oceanic crust) is thinner (averaging 6
km) and has an average composition like that of the igneous rock basalt.
 Because of the difference in composition oceanic crust has a greater
density than continental crust.
o The following map shows the variation in the thickness of the Earth's crust. Note,
in particular, that the thickness increases substantially and abruptly from the crust
beneath the oceans and that beneath the continents. The thickest continental crust
occurs beneath mountain belts where the thickness can exceed 70 km (see the
Andes and the Himalayas on the map below).
o The crust is made up of 25 independent plates that move relative to each other.
(the 15 largest plates are shown on the map below).
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 These plates move independently of each other and each plate is bounded by one or more
of three types of plate boundary that differ in terms of the type of motion that takes place
along the boundary.
 The three types of plate boundaries are:
o Divergent plate boundaries: plates move away from each other on either side of
the boundary (e.g., oceanic ridges)
o Convergent plate boundaries: plates move towards each other on either side of the
boundary (e.g., oceanic trenches and/or mountain belts)
o Transform boundaries: horizontal movement as two plates slide past each other, in
opposite directions on either side of the boundary (e.g., transform faults)
 The details of each type of plate boundary and their associated plate movements are
described in detail below.
 Divergent Plate Boundaries
o The oceanic ridge is a Divergent Plate Margin and divergence takes place by a
process called "Seafloor Spreading".
o New crust is added from upwelling magma (molten rock) from the upper mantle
which intrudes into the overlying oceanic crust.
o Spreading rates (distance per year that two points on either side of a ridge move
apart) vary:
o N. Atlantic Ridge 3cm/yr
o S. Atlantic 5cm/yr
o N. Pacific 12.5cm/yr
o E. Pacific 17.5 cm/yr
o The following map shows the spreading rates at several locations along the
oceanic ridge.
 If you follow the mid-Atlantic oceanic ridge northward you will see that it passes through
the island nation of Iceland. Iceland is a volcanic island which is present because the
oceanic ridge has built up to above sea level. The island is slowly growing as new crust
forms along the ridge axis. The spreading rate at the island is about 1 cm/yr. Because the
oceanic ridge is a plate boundary Iceland consists of two plates: the North American Plate
on the western side of the ridge axis and the Eurasian Plate on the eastern side of the
ridge axis. The following diagram shows the position of the ridge as it passes through the
island and indicates the directions in which the two plates are moving.
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 In general the direction that divergent plates move is at right angles to and away from the
axis of the oceanic ridge. The following map shows the direction of motion of the major
plates.
 Convergent Plate Boundaries
o Oceanic trenches are the seafloor surface expressions of one type of Convergent
Plate Margin because they are locations where plates move towards each other.
Oceanic trenches form where a plate made up of oceanic crust converges on
another plate of oceanic crust (oceanic plate on oceanic plate convergence) AND
where a plate made up oceanic crust converges on a plate made up of thicker
continental crust (oceanic plate on continental plate convergence). In both cases
one of the converging plates (always the one with the densest oceanic crust)
descends below the other.
o Where two plates of continental crust converge on each other (continental plate on
continental plate convergence) an oceanic trench does not form because neither
plate is subducted; the granitic continental crust is too light to sink into the upper
mantle.
 All three types of convergent plate boundaries are described in some detail below.
 Oceanic trenches
o Oceanic crust on oceanic crust convergence
 When two plates of oceanic crust converge and push against each other
one of the plates bends downwards and slides into the upper part of the
mantle as it descends beneath the other plate which over-rides the
descending plate. The oldest and densest crust will most readily descend
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into the mantle. The process by which a plate slides into the upper mantle
is termed subduction. The following figure illustrates subduction of
oceanic crust beneath oceanic crust along a trench.

 The subducting crust descends at angles that range from 35 to 90 degrees. The oceanic
trench is essentially the line defined by the point where the subducting crust moves
beneath the over-riding crust. Where the over-riding crust moves over the subduct crust
it scrapes large slices off the descending slab of crust and these slices accrete to the
leading edge of the over-riding crust to form what is called the subduction complex.
 The subducting crust becomes hotter and weaker as it descends into the hot upper mantle,
beginning at 100 to 200 km depth, and it will normally be weakened to the point that it is
no longer brittle by a depth of 700 km. The zone over which this takes place within the
upper part of the mantle is termed the Benioff Zone.
 Early in its descent, as the subducting crust becomes hotter, water is driven out of the
rocks and that water rises to the base of the crust where its presence reduces the melting
temperature of the crustal rocks and they begin to melt. Much of the hot magma that is
produced by this melting rises upward and intrudes the overlying crust and eventually
reaches the surface where it produces volcanoes. These volcanoes commonly build
upward, rising above sea level where they form a chain of volcanic islands on the over-
riding crust and these chains of trench-parallel volcanoes are called a "volcanic arc
complexes". The islands of Japan are an island arc complex formed in this manner.
 Oceanic crust on continental crust convergence
o When a plate of oceanic crust converges on continental crust the more dense
oceanic crust will always be subducted beneath the lighter and thicker continental
crust. The elements of this type of convergent boundary are shown in the
illustration below.
o The subducting crust descends into the mantle and melts as it passes through the
Benioff Zone. A trench on the seafloor marks the place on the surface where the
two converging plates meet and a subduction complex forms as material is
scraped of the descending slab of oceanic crust.
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o The compressive forces that form the subduction complex also affect the leading
edge of the continental crust as it is folded and faulted in a manner that
significantly increases its thickness and forms a mountain belt along the
continental margin that parallel the trench. In addition, the continental crust is
further thickened by the intrusion of magma generated at the base of the over-
riding plate and building volcanoes within the the rising mountain belt. The
Andes mountain range of South America is an example of this type of mountain
belt.
 Continental crust on continental crust convergence
o Where two plates that are made up of continental crust converge, neither plate
subducts because continental crust is too light to sink into the mantle. As a result
there is no trench to mark the boundary between plates.
o Compressive forces driving plate movement causes the crust to fold and be thrust
up into stacked slices that rise up into majestic mountain belts. The mountain belt
appears as the plate boundary instead of a trench.
o The Himalayan Mountains are forming as India, formerly a separate plate, pushes
against the Asian plate in a northeasterly direction. The Himalayas are still
forming as this process continues.
o The follow animation illustrates the collision between continental plates following
closure (by trench subduction) of a narrow ocean basin. This is how plate
tectonics forces cause continents to collide and form mountain ranges.
 Transform Plate Boundaries
o Plate boundaries along which the plates slip by each other are termed Transform
Faults (a "fault" being a plane passing through rock and on either side of that
plane the rocks are moving in opposite directions).
o Transform faults are active between offset segments of the oceanic ridge.
Because plate movement is away from the axis of the ridge, where the ridge is
offset along a transform fault the motion of the crust is in opposite directions on
either side of the fault. Take a close look at the illustration above to see why this
is the case. The following video will help you to visualize the relative motion
along a transform fault.
o Transform faults occur all along the 65,000 km length of the oceanic ridge and
largely affect only oceanic crust. The following illustration shows the offsetting
of the ridge axis (heavy black lines) by major transform faults (light black lines).
o The spacing of faults appears to be proportional to the rate of seafloor spreading;
the greater the rate of spreading the greater the distance between faults. The
following graph illustrates this relationship between seafloor spreading rate and
transform fault spacing.
o While most transform faults affect only oceanic crust a notable exception is the
San Andreas Fault that extends along the west coast of the United States (see map
below) where it forms the plate boundary between the Pacific and North
American plates. The San Andreas Fault links two segments of oceanic ridge,
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one segment to the north and one to the south. Movement on either side of the
fault is in opposite directions to the relative motion away from the two segments
of oceanic ridge. The reported rate of movement along the San Andreas Fault
varies between 3 and 5 cm per year.
 What drives plate tectonics?
o Geologists are not yet united on the driving mechanism of plate tectonics.
Current thinking falls into two categories of mechanism:
1. Convection Cells within the upper mantle (first postulated by Arthur Holmes a
year before Wegener died); and
2. Ridge push and slab pull.
 1. Mantle Convection
o Giant convection cells within the upper mantle drag the floating plates along ally.
o Where convection rises seafloor spreading takes place.
o Where the convection cells descend they drag crust down, causing subduction.
o In reality mantle convection is complex. The animation below depicts how
geologists think convection really looks like in the mantle. The left hand side
shows cool material (blue) sinking from the top of the mantle downward and the
right hand side shows hot material (yellow) rising upwards from deep within the
mantle.
 2. Ridge push and slab pull
o Along the ridge axis new crust forms and is relatively hot and light so that it floats
high on the mantle. The weight of this elevated crust acts to push it down slope,
driving the plates on either side of the ridge away from its axis.
o The oceanic crust cools over time and becomes more dense as it moves further
and further away form the ridge. At convergent boundaries the weight of the
subducting slab of crust acts to pull the crust behind it along. This pulling from
subduction combines with pushing at the ridge to move the plates laterally, away
from the ridge axis.
o This pushing and pulling provides the forces that drive plate tectonics.
o It is quite possible that it is a combination of convection and pushing and pulling
of the crust that causes it to move, as suggested by the following illustration.
 The debate continues!