CHAPTER FOUR

4. PLATE TECTONICS

4.1 Introduction

Plate Tectonics is called the Unifying Theory because it explains a broad range of phenomena and
unifies much of the geological thoughts.
Geologists believe that earth’s lithosphere is broken into about a dozen plates. These plates are slide by
each other, collide with each other, or separate (moving away) from each other when they float over the
Astenosphere. There are 12 major plates and they float across a layer of soft rock like rafts in a stream,
their motions driven by forces generated deep in the Earth.

Figure 4.1 The lithospheric plates (Ref. 15)

The theory of plate tectonics describes or explains; the movement of plates and the forces acting
between them; the distribution of many large scale geologic features such as mountain chains, structures
on the sea floor, volcanoes, and earth quakes which result from movements at plate boundaries.

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 4.2 Plate Tectonics and Planetary History

4.2.1 Continental Drift Hypothesis

The phrase ‘continental drift’ means the large-scale movements of continents over the globe. The
continental drift hypothesis was first proposed in 1912 by a German meteorologist named Alfred
Wegener,
Wegener, who argued his case largely on the basis of circumstantial evidence. According to
Wegener’s hypothesis, some 200 million years ago all of the continents were assembled together
into the super continent called Pangaea (it means ‘all lands’). At that time 40% of the earth’s
surface is covered by Pangaea and the rest 60% is covered by Panthalasa (it means ‘all seas’).

Figure 4.2 Pangaea and Laurasia

Pangaea began to break up in the Mesozoic Era, some 200 million years ago, into the continents, as we
know them today with ocean filling the widening gaps between them. It was divided in to two large land
masses: the Gondwana land; consisting of the present day Africa, S. America, Antarctica, Australia, &
India and the Laurasia plate; consisting of the present day N. America, Europe, Greenland and Asia
(except India)

180 million years ago, South America & Africa separated from the rest of the Gondwana land. 180 my
to 135 my ago, Africa started separation from South America that is Atlantic ocean began to open in
between Africa and South America. 135 my to 65 MY ago, Australia separate from Antarctica and
Madagascar separated from Africa. Then after continuous changes from 65 my to present, the present
day configuration of the continents were formed.

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 Figure 4.3 Show the separation of Pangaea into the present day configuration of the continents

Based on this, in the future 50 million years from now, it is possible to predict the following.
 Mediterranean sea will be closed.
 Australia will attach to Asia.
 East Africa will be separated from the main Africa.
 Peaks such as Mountain Everest have risen to heights of more than 9 km.
 Atlantic Ocean increases and will be changed into new Panthalasa, and in general will occur a
new environment.

The evidences or observations used by Wegener and others to support the hypothesis of continental drift
includes: The fit of the shorelines of continents; The appearance of the same rock sequences and
mountain ranges of the same age on continents now widely separated; The matching of the glacial
deposits and palaeoclimatic zones; The similarities of the many extinct plant and animal groups whose
fossil remains are found today on widely separated continents; and others.

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1. Shapes of Continents
In 1912 Wegener noticed that the shapes of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean seem to fit
together (for example, Africa and South America). You may have noticed that the western edge of
Africa and the eastern edge of South America make the two continents look remarkably like two
separated puzzle pieces.

Figure 4.5 continental fit of Africa and the South America continents

2. Distribution of Rocks
The appearance of the same rock sequences and mountain ranges of the same age on continents now
widely separated. Broad belts of rocks in Africa and South America are the same type. These broad belts
then match when the end of the continents is joined.

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 Figure 4.6 The appearance of the same rock sequences

a b
Figure 4.7 Appalachian & Caledonian Mountain belts of the same age (a
(a) at present (b
(b) in the past

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3. Distribution of Fossils
Evidence for continental drift is now extensive, in the form of plant and animal fossils of the same age
found around different continent shores, suggesting that these shores were once joined. For example the
fossils of the freshwater crocodile found in Brazil and South Africa. Another illustrative example is the
discovery of fossils of the aquatic reptile Lystrosaurus from rocks of the same age from locations in
South America,
America, Africa,
Africa, and Antarctica.
Antarctica. There is also living evidence - the same animals being found on
two continents. An example of this is a particular earthworm found in South America and South Africa.

Figure 4.8 Shows the distribution of similar fossils (Ref. 15)

4. Palaeoclimatic Evidence
Wegener was aware that a continental ice sheet covered parts of South America, southern Africa, India,
and southern Australia about 300 million years ago. Such glaciation is most likely if the Atlantic Ocean
were missing and the continents joined.

If the continents were cold enough so that ice covered the southern continents, why is no evidence found
for ice in the northern continents? Simply! The present northern continents were at the equator before

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200 million years.
A fatal weakness in Wegener's theory was that it could not satisfactorily answer the most fundamental
question raised by his critics: What kind of forces could be strong enough to move such large masses of
solid rock over such great distances? Wegener suggested that the continents simply plowed through the
ocean floor, but Harold Jeffreys, a noted English Geophysicist, argued correctly that it was physically
impossible for a large mass of solid rock to plow through the ocean floor without breaking up.

After his death (1930), new evidence from ocean floor exploration and other studies rekindled interest in
Wegener's theory, ultimately leading to the development of the Theory of Plate Tectonics.
Tectonics.

During the 1940s and 1950s, great advances were made in our knowledge of the sea floor and in the
magnetic properties of rocks. Both of these fields of study provided new evidence to support continental
drift.

4.2.2 Sea Floor Spreading Hypothesis

In 1962, Harry Hess proposed that new ocean floor is formed at the rift of mid-ocean ridges. The ocean
floor, and the rock beneath it, is produced by magma that rises from deeper levels. Hess suggested that
the ocean floor moved laterally away from the ridge and plunged into an oceanic trench along the
continental margin.

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 Figure 4.11 Hess’s proposed model

As Hess formulated his hypothesis, Robert Dietz independently proposed a similar model and called it
Sea Floor Spreading.
Spreading. Dietz's model had a significant addition. It assumed the sliding surface was at the
base of the lithosphere, not at the base of the crust.
Hess and Dietz succeeded where Wegener had failed. Continents are no longer thought to plow through
oceanic crust but are considered to be part of plates that move on the soft, plastic Astenosphere. A
driving force, convection currents, moved the plates.

4.2.3 The Birth of Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonic theory arose out of two separate geological observations: continental drift, noticed in the
early 20th century, and seafloor spreading, noticed in the 1960s. The theory itself was developed during
the late 1960s and has since almost universally been accepted by scientists.
Continental drift was hotly debated off and on for decades following Wegener's death. However,
beginning in the 1950s, a wealth of new evidence emerged to refresh the debate about Wegener's
challenging ideas and their implications.
Why Should Plates Move?

Figures 4.14 Left: Conceptual drawing of assumed convection cells in the mantle. Below a depth of
about 700 km, the descending slab begins to soften and flow, losing its form. Right: Sketch showing

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convection cells commonly seen in boiling water or soup. This analogy, however, does not take into
account the huge differences in the size and the flow rates of these cells. (Ref. 15)

The mobile rock beneath the rigid plates is believed to be moving in a circular manner somewhat like a
pot of thick soup when heated to boiling. The heated soup rises to the surface, spreads and begins to
cool, and then sinks back to the bottom of the pot or container where it is reheated and rises again. This
cycle is repeated over and over to generate what scientists call a convection cell or convective flow.
While convective flow can be observed easily in a pot of boiling soup, the idea of such a process stirring
up the Earth's interior is much more difficult to grasp. While we know that convective motion in the
Earth is much, much slower than that of boiling soup, many unanswered questions remain: How many
convection cells exist? Where and how do they originate? What is their structure?

Convection cannot take place without a source of heat. Heat within the Earth comes from two main
sources: radioactive decay and residual heat. Residual heat is gravitational energy left over from the
formation of the Earth -- 4.6 billion years ago -- by the "falling together" and compression of cosmic
debris. How and why the escape of interior heat becomes concentrated in certain regions to form
convection cells remains a mystery.

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4.3 Plate Movements And Their Boundaries

The plate boundaries are the most geologically active regions on Earth. Here, new land is born of the
Earth, and old land is consumed. Hot springs spew out mineral-rich waters, volcanoes erupt, and
earthquakes tremble -- resulting in devastating tsunamis, floods, and mudslides. They are associated
with different types of surface phenomena.

Figure 4.15 The three types of plate boundaries (Ref. 15)

There are three types of plate boundaries, characterized by the relative movement of the plates to each
other. The different types of plate boundaries are:
 Divergent boundaries occur where two plates slide apart from each other.
 Convergent boundaries (or active margins) occur where two plates slide towards each other
commonly forming either a subduction zone (if one plate moves underneath the other) or an
orogenic belt (if the two simply collide and compress).

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  Transform boundaries occur where plates slide, or perhaps more accurately grind, past each other
along transform faults. The relative motion of the two plates is therefore either sinistral or
dextral.
 Plate boundary zones occur in more complex situations where three or more plates meet and
exhibit a mixture of the above three boundary types.

4.3.1 Divergent (Constructive) Boundaries

At divergent boundaries, two plates move apart from each other and the space that this creates is filled
with new crustal material sourced from molten magma that forms below.

Figure 4.16 Divergent boundaries where plates move apart (Ref.7)

The genesis of divergent boundaries is sometimes thought to be associated with the phenomenon known
as hotspots. Here, exceedingly large convective cells bring very large quantities of hot asthenospheric
material near the surface and the kinetic energy is thought to be sufficient to break apart the lithosphere.
The hot spot believed to have created the Mid-Atlantic Ridge system currently underlies Iceland, which
is widening at a rate of a few centimeters per century. Such hot spots can be very productive of
geothermal power and Iceland is actively developing this resource and is expected to be the world's first
hydrogen economy within twenty years.

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 Figure 4.17 Map showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
splitting Iceland and separating the North American and
Eurasian Plates. The map also shows Reykjavik, the
capital of Iceland, the Thingvellir area, and the locations
of some of Iceland's active volcanoes (red triangles),
including-Krafl (Ref. 15).

Divergent boundaries are typified in the oceanic lithosphere by the rifts of the oceanic ridge system,
including the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and in the continental lithosphere by rift valleys such as the famous
East African Great Rift Valley.

Figure 4.18 Examples of the divergent plate boundaries (a) Mid-Atlantic ridge (b) East African Rift valley (Ref.32)

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Figure 4.19 Map of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes (red triangles) and the Afar Triangle
(shaded, center) -- a so-called triple junction (or triple point), where three plates are pulling away from one another: the
Arabian Plate, and the two parts of the African Plate (the Nubian and the Somalian) splitting along the East African Rift Zone
(Ref. 15).
15).

4.3.2 Convergent (Destructive) Plate Boundaries

The nature of a convergent boundary depends on the type of lithosphere in the plates that are colliding.
Where a dense oceanic plate collides with a less-dense continental plate, the oceanic plate is typically
thrust underneath, forming a subduction zone. At the surface, the topographic expression is commonly
an oceanic trench on the ocean side and a mountain range on the continental side.

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 Figure 4.20 oceanic-continental convergent boundaries (Ref. 15)

An example of a continental-oceanic subduction zone is the area along the western coast of South
America where the oceanic Nazca Plate is being subducted beneath the continental South American
Plate. As organic material from the ocean bottom is transformed and heated by friction a liquid magma
with a great amount of dissolved gasses will be created. This can erupt to the surface, forming long
chains of volcanoes inland from the continental shelf and parallel to it. The continental spine of South
America is dense with this type of volcano.

In North America the Cascade mountain range, extending north from California's Sierra Nevada, is also
of this type. Such volcanoes are characterized by alternating periods of quiet and episodic eruptions that
start with explosive gas expulsion with fine particles of glassy volcanic ash and spongy cinders,
followed by a rebuilding phase with hot magma. The entire Pacific Ocean boundary is surrounded by
long stretches of volcanoes and is known collectively as The Ring of Fire.

Where two continental plates collide the plates either crumple and compress or one plate burrows under
or (potentially) overrides the other. Either action will create extensive mountain ranges. The most
dramatic effect seen is where the northern margins of the Indian sub continental plate is being thrust
under a portion of the Eurasian plate, lifting it and creating the Himalayas.

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a b
Figure 4.21 (a) continental-continental convergent boundaries (b) a map shows the collision between the Indian and Eurasian
plates, which has pushed up the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau (Ref. 15).

When two oceanic plates converge they form an island arc as one oceanic plate is subducted below the
other. A good example of this type of plate convergence would be Japan.

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Figure 4.22 Oceanic-Oceanic convergent plate boundaries (Ref. 15)

4.3.3 Transform (Conservative) boundaries

The left- or right-lateral motion of one plate against another along transform or strike slip faults can
cause highly visible surface effects. Because of friction, the plates cannot simply slide past each other.
Rather, stress builds up in both plates and when it reaches a level that exceeds the slipping-point of
rocks on either side of the transform-faults the accumulated potential energy is released as strain, or
motion along the fault. The massive amounts of energy that are released are the cause of earthquakes, a
common phenomenon along transform boundaries.

Figure 4.23 Transform faults where plates slide past each other (Ref.7)

A good example of this type of plate boundary is the San Andreas Fault complex, which is found in the
western coast of North America and is one part of a highly complex system of faults in this area. At this
location, the Pacific and North American plates move relative to each other such that the Pacific plate is
moving north with respect to North America.
Divergent boundaries can also create massive fault zones in the oceanic ridge system. Spreading is
generally not uniform, so where spreading rates of adjacent ridge blocks are different massive transform
faults occur. These are the fracture zones that are a major source of submarine earthquakes.

Figure 4.25 A map shows examples of the transform boundaries in the mid oceanic ridges (Ref.32)