Tectonic Plates Page 1 of 6

Plate tectonics: The main • The Rock Cycle

features are: • Plate Tectonics

• Earth Structure
 The Earth's surface is made up of a • Earth Origin
series of large plates (like pieces of a
• Volcanoes
giant jigsaw puzzle).
 These plates are in constant motion • Earth's Atmosphere
travelling at a few centimetres per • Fossil Fuels
year.
 The ocean floors are continually • Polymers
moving, spreading from the centre and • home
sinking at the edges.
Moorland School
 Convection currents beneath the
Clitheroe,
plates move the plates in different
Lancashire
directions.
BB7 2AJ
 The source of heat driving the
England
convection currents is radioactive
email
decay which is happening deep in the
Earth.

 The edges of these plates, where they move against each other, are sites of intense geologic
activity, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.
 Plate tectonics is a relatively new theory and it wasn't until the 1960's that Geologists, with the
help of ocean surveys, began to understand what goes on beneath our feet.

Where is the Evidence for Plate Tectonics?

The continents seem to fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle:

If you look at a map, Africa seems to

snuggle nicely into the east coast of
South America and the Caribbean sea.

file://F:\Net files\Tectonic Plates.htm 3/23/2007

Tectonic Plates Page 2 of 6

In 1912 a German Scientist called Alfred

Wegener proposed that these two
continents were once joined together
then somehow drifted apart. He
proposed that all the continents were
once stuck together as one big land
mass called Pangea. He believed that
Pangea was intact until about 200
million years ago

Click here for some evidence

of this theory

CONTINENTAL DRIFT
The idea that continents can drift about
is called, not surprisingly,
CONTINENTAL DRIFT.

When Wegener first put forward the

idea in 1912 people thought he was
nuts. His big problem was that he knew
the continents had drifted but he
couldn't explain how they drifted. The
old (AND VERY WRONG!!) theory before
this time was the "Contraction theory"
which suggested that the planet was
once a molten ball and in the process of
cooling the surface cracked and folded
up on itself. The big problem with this
idea was that all mountain ranges
should be approximately the same age,
and this was known not to be true.
Wegener's explanation was that as the
continents moved, the leading edge of
the continent would encounter
resistance and thus compress and fold
upwards forming mountains near the
leading edges of the drifting continents.
Wegener also suggested that India
drifted northward into the Asia forming
the Himalayas and of course Mount
Everest.

SEA FLOOR SPREADING

It is hard to imagine that these great big solid slabs of rock could wander around the globe. Scientists
needed a clue as to how the continents drifted. The discovery of the chain of mountains that lie under
the oceans was the clue that they were waiting for.

PLATES ARE CREATED:In the diagram below you can see that the
continental crust is beginning to separate creating a diverging plate
boundary. When a divergence occurs within a continent it is called rifting. A
plume of hot magma rises from deep within the mantle pushing up the crust

file://F:\Net files\Tectonic Plates.htm 3/23/2007

Tectonic Plates Page 3 of 6

and causing pressure forcing the continent to break and separate. Lava flows
and earthquakes would be seen. In the diagram below you can see that the
continental crust is beginning to separate creating a diverging plate
boundary. When a divergence occurs within a continent it is called rifting. A
plume of hot magma rises from deep within the mantle pushing up the crust
and causing pressure forcing the continent to break and separate. Lava flows
and earthquakes would be seen.
This is an example of a divergent plate
boundary (where the plates move away from
each other). The Atlantic Ocean was created by
this process. The mid-Atlantic Ridge is an area
where new sea floor is being created.

As the rift valley expands two continental

plates have been constructed from the original
one. The molten rock continues to push the
crust apart creating new crust as it does.

As the rift valley expands, water collects

forming a sea. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is now
2,000 metres above the adjacent sea floor,
which is at a depth of about 6,000 metres
below sea level.
The sea floor continues to
spread and the plates get
bigger and bigger. This
process can be seen all
over the world and
produces about 17 square
kilometres of new plate
every year.

Click here for the Scotland story

It's important that we look at the evidence for sea

floor spreading. So click here

Picture the following in your mind:

1. You have a nine piece jigsaw (now there's a challenge).

2. The piece in the middle starts to grow.
3. It gets bigger and bigger.

file://F:\Net files\Tectonic Plates.htm 3/23/2007

Tectonic Plates Page 4 of 6

What do you think will happen to the puzzle? ANSWER

Now let's think back to our plates being created at the mid-ocean ridges, it seems to be a good idea but
if this is the only type of plate movement then the world would get bigger and bigger. In fact the world
has remained the same size. So if plates are being created at the mid-ocean ridges then they must be
being consumed somewhere else in the world.

PLATES ARE DESTROYED (SUBDUCTION):

This is a convergent plate
boundary, the plates move
towards each other. The amount of
crust on the surface of the earth
remains relatively constant.
Therefore, when plates diverge
(separate) and form new crust in
one area, the plates must
converge (come together) in
another area and be destroyed. An
example of this is the Nazca plate
being subducted under the South
American plate to form the Andes
Mountain Chain.

Here we can see the oceanic plate moving from left to right. The top layer of the mantle and the crust
(all called the lithosphere) sinks beneath the continent. A deep ocean trench is formed. Water gets
carried down with the oceanic crust and the rocks begin to heat up as they travel slowly into the earth.
Water is then driven off triggering the formation of pools of molten rock which slowly rises. The plate
moves downwards at a rate of a few centimetres per year. The molten rock can take tens of thousands
of years to then either:

 Solidify slowly underground as intrusive igneous rock such as granite.

or

 Reach the surface and erupt as lava flows. Cooling rapidly to form extrusive igneous rock
such as basalt.

The floor of the Easter Pacific is moving towards South America at a rate of 9 centimetres per year. It
might not seem much but over the past 10 million years the Pacific crust has been subducted under
South America and has sunk nearly 1000 kilometres into the Earth's interior.

Types of Convergent Boundaries

The example above showed what happened when the dense oceanic plate subducts under a lighter
continental plate (ie, oceanic - continental). Two other types of subduction can take place:

When two oceanic plate meet each

other (oceanic-oceanic) this often
results in the formation of an island
arc system. As the subducting
oceanic crust melts as it goes
deeper into the Earth, the newly-
created magma rises to the surface
and forms volcanoes. If the activity
continues, the volcano may grow

file://F:\Net files\Tectonic Plates.htm 3/23/2007

Tectonic Plates Page 5 of 6

tall enough to breech the surface of

the ocean creating an island.

The key to subduction seems to be water which acts as a kind of lubricant as the heavier plate slips
underneath the lighter plate.

I must not forget to mention the Himalayas and Mount Everest because this is the third example of
plate movement
Millions of years ago India and an ancient ocean called the Tethys
Ocean were sat on a tectonic plate. This plate was moving
northwards towards Asia at a rate of 10 centimetres per year.
The Tethys oceanic crust was being subducted under the Asian
Continent. The ocean got progressively smaller until about 55
milion years ago when India 'hit' Asia. There was no more ocean
left to lubricate the subduction and so the plates welled up to
form the High Plateau of Tibet and the Himalayan
Mountains. The continental crust under Tibet is over 70
kilometres thick. North of Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, is a
deep gorge in the Himalayas. the rock here is made of schist and
granite with contorted and folded layers of marine sediments
which were deposited by the Tethys ocean over 60 million years
ago.

The fourth type of plate movement involves plates sliding past one another without the construction or
destruction of crust. This boundary is called a conservation zone because plate is neither created nor
destroyed An example of such a boundary is the San Andreas fault in California. The force needed to
move billions of tonnes of rock is unimaginable. When plates move some of the energy is released as
earthquakes.

PLATE TECTONICS AND EARTH STRUCTURE WEB LINKS

Plate Tectonics Excellent source of volcanic information.
Plate Tectonics and People A comprehensive site dealing with the effects that plate tectonics has on
humans. ( Edited version on this site - click here)
Plate Tectonics Excellent explanation of plate tectonics and plate boundaries.
Plate Tectonics, TSAW Project Good source for general information.

file://F:\Net files\Tectonic Plates.htm 3/23/2007

Tectonic Plates Page 6 of 6

Earth's Interior and Plates.

Continental Drift Reconstructions
Webquest: Plate Tectonics Contains lists of questions dealing with plate tectonics.

Back to the Earth Science zone

file://F:\Net files\Tectonic Plates.htm 3/23/2007