Chapter 5: Plate Tectonics

5.1: Continental Drift

Wegeners Idea
Alfred Wegener, born in 1880, was a meteorologist and explorer. In 1911, Wegener found a
scientific paper that listed identical plant and animal fossils on opposite sides of the Atlantic
Ocean. Intrigued, he then searched for and found other cases of identical fossils on opposite sides
of oceans. The explanation put out by the scientists of the day was that land bridges had once
stretched between these continents.
Instead, Wegener pondered the way Africa and South America appeared to fit together like
puzzle pieces. Other scientists had suggested that Africa and South America had once been
joined, but Wegener was the ideas most dogged supporter. Wegener amassed a tremendous
amount of evidence to support his hypothesis that the continents had once been joined.
Imagine that youre Wegeners colleague. What sort of evidence would you look for to see if the
continents had actually been joined and had moved apart?

Wegeners Evidence
Here is the main evidence that Wegener and his supporters collected for the continental drift
hypothesis:

The continents appear to fit together.

Ancient fossils of the same species of extinct plants and animals are found in rocks of the same
age but are on continents that are now widely separated (Figure below). Wegener proposed that the
organisms had lived side by side, but that the lands had moved apart after they were dead and
fossilized. His critics suggested that the organisms moved over long-gone land bridges, but Wegener
thought that the organisms could not have been able to travel across the oceans.
o
Fossils of the seed fern Glossopteris were too heavy to be carried so far by wind.
o

Mesosaurus was a swimming reptile, but could only swim in fresh water.

Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were land reptiles and were unable to swim.

Wegener used fossil evidence to support his continental drift hypothesis. The fossils of these organisms are found on lands that
are now far apart.

Identical rocks, of the same type and age, are found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Wegener
said the rocks had formed side by side and that the land had since moved apart.
Mountain ranges with the same rock types, structures, and ages are now on opposite sides of the
Atlantic Ocean. The Appalachians of the eastern United States and Canada, for example, are just like
mountain ranges in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway (Figure below). Wegener
concluded that they formed as a single mountain range that was separated as the continents drifted.

The similarities between the Appalachian and the eastern Greenland mountain ranges are evidences for the continental drift
hypothesis.

Grooves and rock deposits left by ancient glaciers are found today on different continents very
close to the Equator. This would indicate that the glaciers either formed in the middle of the ocean

and/or covered most of the Earth. Today, glaciers only form on land and nearer the poles. Wegener
thought that the glaciers were centered over the southern land mass close to the South Pole and the

continents moved to their present positions later on.

Coral reefs and coal-forming swamps are found in tropical and subtropical environments, but
ancient coal seams and coral reefs are found in locations where it is much too cold today. Wegener
suggested that these creatures were alive in warm climate zones and that the fossils and coal later

drifted to new locations on the continents.

Wegener thought that mountains formed as continents ran into each other. This got around the
problem of the leading hypothesis of the day, which was that Earth had been a molten ball that bulked
up in spots as it cooled (the problem with this idea was that the mountains should all be the same age
and they were known not to be).

5.2: Wegener and the Continental Drift Hypothesis

Wegeners Continental Drift Hypothesis
Wegener put his idea and his evidence together in his book The Origin of Continents and
Oceans, first published in 1915. New editions with additional evidence were published later in
the decade. In his book he said that around 300 million years ago the continents had all been
joined into a single landmass he called Pangaea, meaning all earth in ancient Greek. The
supercontinent later broke apart and the continents having been moving into their current
positions ever since. He called his hypothesis continental drift.

The Problem with the Hypothesis

Wegeners idea seemed so outlandish at the time that he was ridiculed by other scientists. What
do you think the problem was? To his colleagues, his greatest problem was that he had no
plausible mechanism for how the continents could move through the oceans. Based on his polar
experiences, Wegener suggested that the continents were like icebreaking ships plowing through
ice sheets. The continents moved by centrifugal and tidal forces. As Wegeners colleague, how
would you go about showing whether these forces could move continents? What observations
would you expect to see on these continents?

Alfred Wegener suggested that continental drift occurred as continents cut through the ocean floor, in the same way as this
icebreaker plows through sea ice.

Early hypotheses proposed that centrifugal forces moved continents. This is the same force that moves the swings outward on a
spinning carnival ride.

Scientists at the time calculated that centrifugal and tidal forces were too weak to move
continents. When one scientist did calculations that assumed that these forces were strong
enough to move continents, his result was that if Earth had such strong forces the planet would
stop rotating in less than one year. In addition, scientists also thought that the continents that had
been plowing through the ocean basins should be much more deformed than they are.
Wegener answered his question of whether Africa and South America had once been joined. But
a hypothesis is rarely accepted without a mechanism to drive it. Are you going to support
Wegener? A very few scientists did, since his hypothesis elegantly explained the similar
fossils and rocks on opposite sides of the ocean, but most did not.

Mantle Convection
Wegener had many thoughts regarding what could be the driving force behind continental drift.
Another of Wegeners colleagues, Arthur Holmes, elaborated on Wegeners idea that there is
thermal convection in the mantle.

Thermal convection occurs as hot rock in the deep mantle rises towards the Earth's surface. This rock then spreads out and cools,
sinking back towards the core, where it can be heated again. This circulation of rock through the mantle creates convection cells.

In a convection cell, material deep beneath the surface is heated so that its density is lowered and
it rises. Near the surface it becomes cooler and denser, so it sinks. Holmes thought this could be
like a conveyor belt. Where two adjacent convection cells rise to the surface, a continent could
break apart with pieces moving in opposite directions. Although this sounds like a great idea,
there was no real evidence for it, either.
Alfred Wegener died in 1930 on an expedition on the Greenland icecap. For the most part the
continental drift idea was put to rest for a few decades, until technological advances presented
even more evidence that the continents moved and gave scientists the tools to develop a
mechanism for Wegeners drifting continents. Since youre on a virtual field trip, you get to go
along with them as well.

5.3: Magnetic Polarity Evidence for Continental

Drift

Magnetic Polarity Evidence

The next breakthrough in the development of the theory of plate tectonics came two decades
after Wegeners death. Magnetite crystals are shaped like a tiny bar magnet. As basalt lava cools,
the magnetite crystals line up in the magnetic field like tiny magnets. When the lava is
completely cooled, the crystals point in the direction of magnetic north pole at the time they
form. How do you expect this would help scientists see whether continents had moved or not?

Magnetite crystals.

As a Wegener supporter, (and someone who is omniscient), you have just learned of a new tool
that may help you. A magnetometer is a device capable of measuring the magnetic field
intensity. This allows you to look at the magnetic properties of rocks in many locations. First,
youre going to look at rocks on land. Which rocks should you seek out for study?
Magnetic Polarity on the Same Continent with Rocks of Different Ages

Geologists noted important things about the magnetic polarity of different aged rocks on the
same continent:

Magnetite crystals in fresh volcanic rocks point to the current magnetic north pole (Figurebelow)
no matter what continent or where on the continent the rocks are located.

Earths current north magnetic pole is in northern Canada.

Older rocks that are the same age and are located on the same continent point to the same
location, but that location is not the current north magnetic pole.

Older rocks that are of different ages do not point to the same locations or to the current magnetic
north pole.

In other words, although the magnetite crystals were pointing to the magnetic north pole, the
location of the pole seemed to wander. Scientists were amazed to find that the north magnetic
pole changed location over time (Figure below).

The location of the north magnetic north pole 80 million years before present (mybp), then 60, 40, 20, and now.

Can you figure out the three possible explanations for this? They are:
1.

The continents remained fixed and the north magnetic pole moved.

2.

The north magnetic pole stood still and the continents moved.

3.

Both the continents and the north pole moved.

Magnetic Polarity on Different Continents with Rocks of the Same Age

How do you figure out which of those three possibilities is correct? You decide to look at
magnetic rocks on different continents. Geologists noted that for rocks of the same age but on
different continents, the little magnets pointed to different magnetic north poles.

400 million-year-old magnetite in Europe pointed to a different north magnetic pole than
magnetite of the same age in North America.

250 million years ago, the north poles were also different for the two continents.

Now look again at the three possible explanations. Only one can be correct. If the continents had
remained fixed while the north magnetic pole moved, there must have been two separate north
poles. Since there is only one north pole today, what is the best explanation? The only reasonable

explanation is that the magnetic north pole has remained fixed but that the continents have
moved.

Wegener Was Right!

How does this help you to provide evidence for continental drift? To test the idea that the pole
remained fixed but the continents moved, geologists fitted the continents together as Wegener
had done. It worked! There has only been one magnetic north pole and the continents have
drifted (Figure below). They named the phenomenon of the magnetic pole that seemed to move
but actually did not apparent polar wander.

On the left: The apparent north pole for Europe and North America if the continents were always in their current locations. The
two paths merge into one if the continents are allowed to drift.

This evidence for continental drift gave geologists renewed interest in understanding how
continents could move about on the planets surface.

5.4: Bathymetric Evidence for Seafloor Spreading

Life at Sea
Well go out on the research vessel (R/V in ship-speak) Atlantis, owned by the US Navy and
operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the oceanographic community.
The Atlantis has six science labs and storage spaces, precise navigation systems, seafloormapping sonar and satellite communications. Most importantly, the ship has all of the heavy
equipment necessary to deploy and operate Alvin, the manned research submersible.
The ship has 24 bunks available for scientists, including two for the chief scientists. The majority
of these bunks are below waterline, which makes for good sleeping in the daytime. Ship time is
really expensive research, so vessels operate all night and so do the scientists. Your watch, as
your time on duty is called, may be 12-4, 4-8 or 8-12 thats AM and PM. Alternately, if youre
on the team doing a lot of diving in Alvin, you may just be up during the day. If youre mostly
doing operations that dont involve Alvin, you may just be up at night. For safety reasons, Alvin
is deployed and recovered only in daylight.

Alvin is deployed from the stern of the R/V Atlantis.

Scientists come from all over to meet a research ship in a port. An oceanographer these days
doesnt need to be near the ocean, he or she just needs to have access to an airport!
Lets begin this cruise in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Atlantis home port. Our first voyage will
be out to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Transit time to the research site can take days. By doing this
virtually, we dont have to spend days in transit to our research site, and we dont have to get
seasick!

As we head to the site, we will run the echo sounder. Lets see what we can find!
Echo Sounding

The people who first mapped the seafloor were aboard military vessels during World War II. As
stated in the Earth as a Planet chapter, echo sounders used sound waves to search for submarines,
but also produced a map of seafloor depths. Depth sounding continued in earnest after the war.
Scientists pieced together the ocean depths to produce bathymetric maps of the seafloor. During
WWII and in the decade or so later, echo sounders had only one beam, so they just returned a
line showing the depth beneath the ship. Later echo sounders sent out multiple beams and could
create a bathymetric map of the seafloor below.
We will run a multi-beam echo sounder as we go from Woods Hole out to the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge.

Features of the Seafloor

Although they expected an expanse of flat, featureless plains, scientists were shocked to find
tremendous features like mountain ranges, rifts, and trenches. This work continues on
oceanographic research vessels as they sail across the seas today. The map in the Figure below is
a modern map with data from several decades.
The major features of the ocean basins and their colors on the map in Figure below include:

mid-ocean ridges: these features rise up high above the deep seafloor as a long chain of
mountains, e.g. the light blue gash in middle of Atlantic Ocean.
rift zones: in the middle of the mid-ocean ridges is a rift zone that is lower in elevation than the
mountains surrounding it.

deep sea trenches: these features are found at the edges of continents or in the sea near chains of
active volcanoes, e.g. the very deepest blue, off of western South America.
abyssal plains: these features are flat areas, although many are dotted with volcanic mountains,
e.g. consistent blue off of southeastern South America.

See if you can identify each of these features in Figure below.

A modern map of the southeastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

When they first observed these bathymetric maps, scientists wondered what had formed these
features. It turns out that they were crucial for fitting together ideas about seafloor spreading.

Continental Margin
As we have seen, the ocean floor is not flat: mid-ocean ridges, deep sea trenches, and other
features all rise sharply above or plunge deeply below the abyssal plains. In fact, Earths tallest
mountain is Mauna Kea volcano, which rises 10,203 m (33,476 ft.)meters) from the Pacific
Ocean floor to become one of the volcanic mountains of Hawaii. The deepest canyon is also on
the ocean floor, the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, 10,916 m (35,814 ft).
The continental margin is the transition from the land to the deep sea or, geologically speaking,
from continental crust to oceanic crust. More than one-quarter of the ocean basin is continental
margin. ( Figure below).

The continental margin is divided into the continental shelf, continental slope, and continental rise, based on the steepness of the
slope.

5.5: Magnetic Evidence for Seafloor Spreading

Seafloor Magnetism
On our transit to the Mid-Atlantic ridge, we tow a magnetometer behind the ship. Shipboard
magnetometers reveal the magnetic polarity of the rock beneath them. The practice of towing a
magnetometer began during WWII when navy ships towed magnetometers to search for enemy
submarines.
When scientists plotted the points of normal and reversed polarity on a seafloor map they made
an astonishing discovery: the normal and reversed magnetic polarity of seafloor basalts creates a
pattern.

Stripes of normal polarity and reversed polarity alternate across the ocean bottom.

Stripes form mirror images on either side of the mid-ocean ridges (Figure below).

Stripes end abruptly at the edges of continents, sometimes at a deep sea trench (Figurebelow).

Magnetic polarity is normal at the ridge crest but reversed in symmetrical patterns away from the ridge center. This normal and
reversed pattern continues across the seafloor.

The magnetic stripes are what created the Figure above. Research cruises today tow
magnetometers to add detail to existing magnetic polarity data.

Seafloor Age
By combining magnetic polarity data from rocks on land and on the seafloor with radiometric
age dating and fossil ages, scientists came up with a time scale for the magnetic reversals. The
first four magnetic periods are:

Brunhes normal - present to 730,000 years ago.

Matuyama reverse - 730,000 years ago to 2.48 million years ago.

Gauss normal - 2.48 to 3.4 million years ago.

Gilbert reverse 3.4 to 5.3 million years ago.

The scientists noticed that the rocks got older with distance from the mid-ocean ridges. The
youngest rocks were located at the ridge crest and the oldest rocks were located the farthest
away, abutting continents.
Scientists also noticed that the characteristics of the rocks and sediments changed with
distance from the ridge axis as seen in the Table below.
Rock ages

Sediment thickness

Crust thickness

Heat flow

At ridge axis

youngest

none

thinnest

hottest

With distance from axis

becomes older

becomes thicker

becomes thicker

becomes cooler

Away from the ridge crest, sediment becomes older and thicker, and the seafloor becomes
thicker. Heat flow, which indicates the warmth of a region, is highest at the ridge crest.
The oldest seafloor is near the edges of continents or deep sea trenches and is less than 180
million years old (Figure below). Since the oldest ocean crust is so much younger than the oldest
continental crust, scientists realized that something was happening to the older seafloor.

Seafloor is youngest at the mid-ocean ridges and becomes progressively older with distance from the ridge.

How can you explain the observations that scientists have made in the oceans? Why is rock
younger at the ridge and oldest at the farthest points from the ridge? The scientists suggested that
seafloor was being created at the ridge. Since the planet is not getting larger, they suggested that
it is destroyed in a relatively short amount of geologic time.

5.6: Seafloor Spreading Hypothesis

Seafloor Spreading
The features of the seafloor and the patterns of magnetic polarity symmetrically about the midocean ridges were the pieces that Hess needed. He resurrected Wegeners continental
drift hypothesis and also the mantle convection idea of Holmes.
Hess wrote that hot magma rose up into the rift valley at the mid-ocean ridges. The lava oozed up
and forced the existing seafloor away from the rift in opposite directions. Since magnetite
crystals point in the direction of the magnetic north pole as the lava cools, the different stripes of
magnetic polarity revealed the different ages of the seafloor. The seafloor at the ridge is from the

Brunhes normal; beyond that is basalt from the Matuyama reverse; and beyond that from the
Gauss normal. Hess called this idea seafloor spreading.

Magma at the mid-ocean ridge creates new seafloor.

Since new oceanic crust is created at the mid-ocean ridges, either Earth is getting bigger (which
it is not) or oceanic crust must be destroyed somewhere. Since the oldest oceanic crust was found
at the edges of the trenches, Hess hypothesized that the seafloor subducts into Earths interior at
the trenches to be recycled in the mantle.

As oceanic crust forms and spreads, moving away from the ridge crest, it pushes the continent
away from the ridge axis.

If the oceanic crust reaches a deep sea trench, it sinks into the trench and is lost into the mantle.

The oldest crust is coldest and lies deepest in the ocean because it is less buoyant than the hot
new crust.

Hess could also use seafloor spreading to explain the flat topped guyots. He suggested that they
were once active volcanoes that were exposed to erosion above sea level. As the seafloor they sat
on moved away from the ridge, the crust on which they sat become less buoyant and the guyots
moved deeper beneath sea level.

The Mechanism for Continental Drift

Seafloor spreading is the mechanism for Wegeners drifting continents. Convection currents
within the mantle take the continents on a conveyor-belt ride of oceanic crust that, over millions

of years, takes them around the planets surface. The spreading plate takes along any continent
that rides on it.

5.7: Earth's Tectonic Plates

What is a Plate?
What portion of Earth makes up the plates in plate tectonics? Again, the answer came about in
part due to war. In this case, the Cold War.
During the 1950s and early 1960s, scientists set up seismograph networks to see if enemy nations
were testing atomic bombs. These seismographs also recorded all of the earthquakes around the
planet. The seismic records were used to locate an earthquakes epicenter, the point on Earths
surface directly above the place where the earthquake occurs.
Why is this relevant? It turns out that earthquake epicenters outline the plates. This is because
earthquakes occur everywhere plates come into contact with each other.

Earthquakes outline the plates.

The lithosphere is divided into a dozen major and several minor plates (Figure above). A single
plate can be made of all oceanic lithosphere or all continental lithosphere, but nearly all plates
are made of a combination of both.
The movement of the plates over Earth's surface is termed plate tectonics. Plates move at a rate
of a few centimeters a year, about the same rate fingernails grow.

How Plates Move

If seafloor spreading drives the plates, what drives seafloor spreading?
This goes back to Arthur Holmes idea of mantle convection. Picture two convection cells side
by side in the mantle, similar to the illustration in Figure below.
1.

Hot mantle from the two adjacent cells rises at the ridge axis, creating new ocean crust.

2.

The top limb of the convection cell moves horizontally away from the ridge crest, as does the
new seafloor.

3.

The outer limbs of the convection cells plunge down into the deeper mantle, dragging oceanic
crust as well. This takes place at the deep sea trenches.

4.

The material sinks to the core and moves horizontally.

5.

The material heats up and reaches the zone where it rises again.

Mantle convection drives plate tectonics. Hot material rises at mid-ocean ridges and sinks at deep sea trenches, which keeps the
plates moving along the Earths surface.

Plate Boundaries
Plate boundaries are the edges where two plates meet. How can two plates move relative to
each other? Most geologic activities, including volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain building,
take place at plate boundaries. The features found at these plate boundaries are the mid-ocean
ridges, trenches, and large transform faults (Figure below).

Divergent plate boundaries: the two plates move away from each other.

Convergent plate boundaries: the two plates move towards each other.

Transform plate boundaries: the two plates slip past each other.

The lithospheric plates and their names. The arrows show whether the plates are moving apart, moving together, or sliding past
each other.

The type of plate boundary and the type of crust found on each side of the boundary determines
what sort of geologic activity will be found there. We can visit each of these types of plate
boundaries on land or at sea.

5.8: Divergent Plate Boundaries in the Oceans

Plate Divergence in the Ocean

Iceland provides us with a fabulous view of a mid-ocean ridge above sea level (Figure below)
As you can see, where plates diverge at a mid-ocean ridge is a rift valley that marks the boundary
between the two plates. Basalt lava erupts into that rift valley and forms newseafloor. Seafloor
on one side of the rift is part of one plate and seafloor on the other side is part of another plate.

Iceland is the one location where the ridge is located on land: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge separates the North American and Eurasian
plates

Leif the Lucky Bridge straddles the divergent plate boundary. Look back at the photo at the top.
You may think that the rock on the left side of the valley looks pretty much like the rock on the
right side. Thats true its all basalt and it even all has the same magnetic polarity. The rocks on
both sides are extremely young. Whats different is that the rock one side of the bridge is the
youngest rock of the North American Plate while the rock on the other side is the youngest rock
on the Eurasian plate.
This is a block diagram of a divergent plate boundary. Remember that most of these are on
the seafloor and only in Iceland do we get such a good view of a divergent plate boundary in the
ocean.

Convection Cells at Divergent Plate Boundaries

Remember that the mid-ocean ridge is where hot mantle material upwells in
a convection cell. The upwelling mantle melts due to pressure release to form lava. Lava flows at
the surface cool rapidly to become basalt, but deeper in the crust, magma cools more slowly to
form gabbro. The entire ridge system is made up of igneous rock that is either extrusive or
intrusive. The seafloor is also igneous rock with some sediment that has fallen onto it.
Earthquakes are common at mid-ocean ridges since the movement of magma and oceanic crust
results in crustal shaking.

5.9: Divergent Plate Boundaries

Tectonic Features of Western North America

We're on a new trip now. We will start in Mexico, in the region surrounding the Gulf of
California, where a divergent plate boundary is rifting Baja California and mainland Mexico
apart. Then we will move up into California, where plates on both sides of a transform boundary
are sliding past each other. Finally well end up off of the Pacific Northwest, where a divergent
plate boundary is very near a subduction zone just offshore.

This map shows the three major plate boundaries in or near California.

In the Figure above a red bar where seafloor spreading is taking place. A long black line is a
transform fault and a black line with hatch marks is a trench where subduction is taking place.
Notice how one type of plate boundary transitions into another.

Plate Divergence on Land

A divergent plate boundary on land rips apart continents (Figure below).

When plate divergence occurs on land, the continental crust rifts, or splits. This effectively creates a new ocean basin as the
pieces of the continent move apart.

In continental rifting, magma rises beneath the continent, causing it to become thinner, break,
and ultimately split apart. New ocean crust erupts in the void, ultimately creating an ocean
between continents. On either side of the ocean are now two different lithospheric plates. This is
how continents split apart.
These features are well displayed in the East African Rift, where rifting has begun, and in the
Red Sea, where water is filling up the basin created by seafloor spreading. The Atlantic Ocean is
the final stage, where rifting is now separating two plates of oceanic crust.

Baja California

Baja California is rifting apart from mainland Mexico, as seen in this satellite image.

Baja California is a state in Mexico just south of California. In the Figure above, Baja California
is the long, skinny land mass on the left. You can see that the Pacific Ocean is growing in
between Baja California and mainland Mexico. This body of water is called the Gulf of
California or, more romantically, the Sea of Cortez. Baja is on the Pacific Plate and the rest of
Mexico is on the North American Plate. Extension is causing the two plates to move apart and
will eventually break Baja and the westernmost part of California off of North America. The
Gulf of California will expand into a larger sea.

Volcanism in Baja California is evidence of rifting.

Rifting has caused volcanic activity on the Baja California peninsula as seen in the Figure
above.
Can you relate what is happening at this plate boundary to what happened when Pangaea broke
apart?

5.10: Transform Plate Boundaries

Transform Plate Boundaries

With transform plate boundaries, the two slabs of lithosphere are sliding past each other in
opposite directions. The boundary between the two plates is a transform fault.

Transform Faults On Land

Transform faults on continents separate two massive plates of lithosphere. As they slide past each
other, they may have massive earthquakes.
The San Andreas Fault in California is perhaps the worlds most famous transform fault. Land on
the west side is moving northward relative to land on the east side. This means that Los Angeles
is moving northward relative to Palm Springs. The San Andreas Fault is famous because it is the
site of many earthquakes, large and small. (Figure below).

At the San Andreas Fault in California, the Pacific Plate is sliding northeast relative to the North American plate, which is
moving southwest. At the northern end of the picture, the transform boundary turns into a subduction zone.

Transform plate boundaries are also found in the oceans. They divide mid-ocean ridges into
segments. In the diagram of western North America, the mid-ocean ridge up at the top, labeled
the Juan de Fuca Ridge, is broken apart by a transform fault in the oceans. A careful look will
show that different plates are found on each side of the ridge: the Juan de Fuca plate on the east
side and the Pacific Plate on the west side.

5.11: Ocean-Continent Convergent Plate

Boundaries

Convergent Plate Boundaries

When two plates converge, what happens depends on the types of lithosphere that meet. The
three possibilities are oceanic crust to oceanic crust, oceanic crust to continental crust, or
continental crust to continental crust. If at least one of the slabs of lithosphere is oceanic, that
oceanic plate will plunge into the trench and back into the mantle. The meeting of two enormous
slabs of lithosphere and subduction of one results in magma generation and earthquakes. If both

plates meet with continental crust, there will be mountain building. Each of the three possibilities
is discussed in a different concept.
In this concept we look at subduction of an oceanic plate beneath a continental plate in the
Pacific Northwest.

Ocean-Continent Convergence
When oceanic crust converges with continental crust, the denser oceanic plate plunges beneath
the continental plate. This process, called subduction, occurs at the oceanic trenches. The entire
region is known as a subduction zone. Subduction zones have a lot of intense earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions. The subducting plate causes melting in the mantle above the plate. The
magma rises and erupts, creating volcanoes. These coastal volcanic mountains are found in a line
above the subducting plate (Figure below). The volcanoes are known as a continental arc.

Subduction of an oceanic plate beneath a continental plate causes earthquakes and forms a line of volcanoes known as a
continental arc.

The movement of crust and magma causes earthquakes. Remember that the mid-ocean ridge is
where hot mantle material upwells in a convection cell. The upwelling mantle melts due to
pressure release to form lava. Lava flows at the surface cool rapidly to become basalt, but deeper
in the crust, magma cools more slowly to form gabbro. The entire ridge system is made up of
igneous rock that is either extrusive or intrusive. The seafloor is also igneous rock with some
sediment that has fallen onto it.

Cascades Volcanoes

The volcanoes of northeastern California Lassen Peak, Mount Shasta, and Medicine Lake
volcano along with the rest of the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest, are the result
of subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate beneath the North American plate (Figure below). The
Juan de Fuca plate is created by seafloor spreading just offshore at the Juan de Fuca ridge.

The Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest are a continental arc.

Intrusions at a Convergent Boundary

If the magma at a continental arc is felsic, it may be too viscous (thick) to rise through the crust.
The magma will cool slowly to form granite or granodiorite. These large bodies of
intrusive igneous rocks are called batholiths, which may someday be uplifted to form a
mountain range. California has an ancient set of batholiths that make up the Sierra Nevada
mountains ( Figure below).

The Sierra Nevada batholith cooled beneath a volcanic arc roughly 200 million years ago. The rock is well exposed here at
Mount Whitney. Similar batholiths are likely forming beneath the Andes and Cascades today.

5.12: Ocean-Ocean Convergent Plate Boundaries

Convergent Plate Boundaries

When two plates converge, what happens depends on the types of lithosphere that meet. We
explored what happens when oceanic crust meets continental crust. Another type of convergent
plate boundary is found where two oceanic plates meet. In this case the older, denser slab of
oceanic crust will plunge beneath the less dense one.
Ocean-Ocean

The features of a subduction zone where an oceanic plate subducts beneath another oceanic plate
are the same as a continent-ocean subduction zone. An ocean trench marks the location where the
plate is pushed down into the mantle. In this case, the line of volcanoes that grows on the upper
oceanic plate is an island arc. Do you think earthquakes are common in these regions
(Figure below)?

Subduction of an ocean plate beneath other oceanic crust results in a volcanic island arc, an ocean trench, and many earthquakes

In the north Pacific, the Pacific Plate is subducting beneath the North American Plate just as it
was off of the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The difference is that here the North American
plate is covered with oceanic crust. Remember that most plates are made of different types of
crust. This subduction creates the Aleutian Islands, many of which are currently active
(seeFigure below). Airplanes sometimes must avoid flying over these volcanoes for fear of being
caught in an eruption.

The arc of the island arc that is the Aleutian Islands is easily seen in this map of North Pacific air routes over the region.

5.13: Continent-Continent Convergent Plate

Boundaries

Continent-Continent Convergence
Continental plates are too buoyant to subduct. What happens to continental material when it
collides? It has nowhere to go but up!

A diagram of two sections of continental crust converging.

Continent-continent convergence creates some of the worlds largest mountains ranges. Magma
cannot penetrate this thick crust, so there are no volcanoes, although the magma stays in the
crust. Metamorphic rocks are common because of the stress the continental crust experiences.
With enormous slabs of crust smashing together, continent-continent collisions bring on
numerous and large earthquakes.
A short animation of the Indian Plate colliding with the Eurasian
The Appalachian Mountains along the eastern United States are the remnants of a large mountain
range that was created when North America rammed into Eurasia about 250 million years ago.
This was part of the formation of Pangaea.

5.14: Plate Tectonics through Earth History

Plate Tectonics Theory

First, lets review plate tectonics theory. Plate tectonics theory explains why:

Earth's geography has changed over time and continues to change today.

some places are prone to earthquakes while others are not.

certain regions may have deadly, mild, or no volcanic eruptions.

mountain ranges are located where they are.

many ore deposits are located where they are.

living and fossil species are found where they are.

Plate tectonic motions affect Earths rock cycle, climate, and the evolution of life.

Supercontinent Cycle
Remember that Wegener used the similarity of the mountains on the west and east sides
of the Atlantic as evidence for his continental drift hypothesis. Those mountains rose at the
convergent plate boundaries where the continents were smashing together to create Pangaea. As
Pangaea came together about 300 million years ago, the continents were separated by an ocean
where the Atlantic is now. The proto-Atlantic ocean shrank as the Pacific Ocean grew.
The Appalachian mountains of eastern North America formed at a convergent plate boundary as
Pangaea came together (Figure below). About 200 million years ago, the they were probably as
high as the Himalayas, but they have been weathered and eroded significantly since the breakup
of Pangaea.

The Appalachian Mountains in New Hampshire.

Pangaea has been breaking apart since about 250 million years ago. Divergent plate
boundaries formed within the continents to cause them to rift apart. The continents are still
moving apart, since the Pacific is shrinking as the Atlantic is growing. If the continents continue
in their current directions, they will come together to create a supercontinent on the other side of
the planet in around 200 million years.
If you go back before Pangaea there were earlier supercontinents, such as Rodinia, which existed
750 million to 1.1 billion years ago, and Columbia, at 1.5 to 1.8 billion years ago. This
supercontinent cycle is responsible for most of the geologic features that we see and many more
that are long gone (Figure below).

Scientists think that the creation and breakup of a supercontinent takes place about every 500 million years. The supercontinent
before Pangaea was Rodinia. A new continent will form as the Pacific ocean disappears.

5.15: Intraplate Activity

Intraplate Activity
A small amount of geologic activity, known as intraplate activity, does not take place at
plate boundaries but within a plate instead. Mantle plumes are pipes of hot rock that rise through
the mantle. The release of pressure causes melting near the surface to form a hotspot. Eruptions
at the hotspot create a volcano.
Hotspot volcanoes are found in a line (Figure below). Can you figure out why? Hint: The
youngest volcano sits above the hotspot and volcanoes become older with distance from the
hotspot.
Intraplate Activity in the Oceans

The first photo above is of a volcanic eruption in Hawaii. Hawaii is not in western North
America, but is in the central Pacific ocean, near the middle of the Pacific Plate.
The Hawaiian Islands are a beautiful example of a hotspot chain in the Pacific Ocean. Kilauea
volcano lies above the Hawaiian hotspot. Mauna Loa volcano is older than Kilauea and is still
erupting, but at a slower rate. The islands get progressively older to the northwest because they
are further from the hotspot. This is because the Pacific Plate is moving toward the northwest
over the hotspot. Loihi, the youngest volcano, is still below the sea surface.

The Hawaiian Islands have formed from volcanic eruptions above the Hawaii hotspot.

Since many hotspots are stationary in the mantle, geologists can use some hotspot chains to tell
the direction and the speed a plate is moving (Figure below). The Hawaiian chain continues into
the Emperor Seamounts. The bend in the chain was caused by a change in the direction of the
Pacific Plate 43 million years ago. Using the age and distance of the bend, geologists can figure
out the speed of the Pacific Plate over the hotspot.

The Hawaiian-Emperor chain can be traced from Hawaii in the central Pacific north of the Equator into the Aleutian trench,
where the oldest of the volcanoes is being subducted. It looks like a skewed "L".

Intraplate Activity on the Continents

The second photo in the introduction is of a geyser at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
Yellowstone is in the western U.S. but is inland from the plate boundaries offshore.
Hotspot magmas rarely penetrate through thick continental crust, so hotspot activity on
continents is rare. One exception is the Yellowstone hotspot (Figure below). Volcanic activity
above the Yellowstone hotspot on can be traced from 15 million years ago to its present location
on the North American Plate.

The ages of volcanic activity attributed to the Yellowstone hotspot.