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Alan Strahler
Chapter 11
Earth Materials and Plate Tectonics
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Earth Materials and Plate
Tectonics
Chapter 11
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Chapter Outline
3. Plate Tectonics
3
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the
Earth’s Crust
THE EARTH’S INTERIOR
MINERALS AND ROCKS
IGNEOUS ROCKS
METAMORPHIC ROCKS
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THE EARTH’S INTERIOR
Earth’s interior:
•Crust
•Mantle
•Liquid outer core
•Solid inner core
Continental crust
has both felsic and
mafic rock zones,
while oceanic crust
has only mafic.
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 6 Slide
MINERALS AND ROCKS
Rocks are composed of minerals—naturally
occurring inorganic substances.
Classes of rocks:
• Igneous
• Sedimentary
• Metamorphic
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 7 Slide
MINERALS AND ROCKS
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 8 Slide
IGNEOUS ROCKS
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 10 Slide
IGNEOUS ROCKS - Mafic
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 11 Slide
SEDIMENTS AND
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
Sedimentary rocks -
composed of sediment
•Clastic (rock and/ or mineral
fragments)
•Chemically precipitated
(formed by chemical
precipitation from sea water
or salty inland lakes)
•Organic (formed from
organic materials, coal, peat)
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 13 Slide
METAMORPHIC ROCKS
Metamorphic rocks - formed from preexisting rocks by intense heat
and pressure, which alter rock structure and chemical composition.
• Shale is transformed to slate or schist
• Sandstone to quartzite
• Limestone to marble
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 14 Slide
THE CYCLE OF ROCK
CHANGE At surface
rocks weather
into
sediment.
In the deep
environment, heat
and pressure
transform sediment
into rock that is
eventually exposed
at the surface.
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 15 Slide
THE GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
4.5 billion years since the Earth formed divided into eons, eras,
and periods.
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1. Minerals and Rocks of the Earth’s Crust 18 Slide
2. Major Relief Features of
the Earth’s Surface
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19 Slide
THE LITHOSPHERE AND
ASTHENOSPHERE
Lithosphere - solid, brittle
outermost layer of the Earth,
includes the crust and the
cooler, brittle upper part of the
mantle.
Asthenosphere is plastic.
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2. Major Relief Features of the Earth’s Surface 20 Slide
RELIEF FEATURES OF THE
CONTINENTS
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2. Major Relief Features of the Earth’s Surface 21 Slide
RELIEF FEATURES OF THE
CONTINENTS
Continental relief features:
Active - mountain-making belts
Inactive - regions of old, stable rock.
Active Belts:
Volcanism - massive accumulations of
volcanic rock formed by extrusion of magma
Tectonic activity —the breaking and bending
of the Earth’s crust under internal Earth
forces. This tectonic activity usually occurs
when great lithospheric plates come together
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2. Major Relief Features of the Earth’s Surface 22 Slide
RELIEF FEATURES OF THE
CONTINENTS
Continental relief features:
Active - mountain-making belts
Inactive - regions of old, stable
rock.
Inactive Belts:
Stable rocks include continental
shields & ancient mountain roots.
Continental shields - low-lying areas
of old igneous and metamorphic rock.
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2. Major Relief Features of the Earth’s Surface 23 Slide
RELIEF FEATURES OF THE
CONTINENTS
Ocean basins -
• midoceanic ridge
• central axial rift where crust is being pulled apart
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2. Major Relief Features of the Earth’s Surface 25 Slide
RELIEF FEATURES OF THE
OCEAN BASINS
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2. Major Relief Features of the Earth’s Surface 26 Slide
3. Plate Tectonics
ARC--CONTINENT COLLISION
ARC
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27 Slide
3. Plate Tectonics continued
CONTINENT--CONTINENT COLLISION
CONTINENT
Extension
• Fracturing and faulting of the crust.
• Occurs when oceanic plates are pulled apart or
when a continental plate breaks up into fragments.
• As the crust thins, it is fractured and pushed
upward, producing block mountains.
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29 Slide
3. Plate Tectonics
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30 Slide
PLATES AND
BOUNDARIES
Spreading boundary - crust is
being pulled apart.
Converging boundary - one
plate is subducted beneath
another.
Transform boundary -two plates
glide adjacent to each other.
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3. Plate Tectonics 31 Slide
PLATES AND
BOUNDARIES
1. 3.
2.
4.
Diagrams show development of a
recumbent fold, broken by a low-angle
overthrust fault to produce a thrust
sheet, or nappe, in alpine structure.
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3. Plate Tectonics 32 Slide
PLATES AND
BOUNDARIES
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3. Plate Tectonics 33 Slide
THE GLOBAL SYSTEM OF
LITHOSPHERIC PLATES
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3. Plate Tectonics 34 Slide
THE GLOBAL SYSTEM OF
LITHOSPHERIC PLATES
Pacific plate occupies Pacific Ocean Basin,
consists almost entirely of oceanic lithosphere.
Subduction boundary along most of the
western and northern edge, and a spreading
boundary at the eastern and southern edge.
Continental lithosphere makes up coastal
California, bounded by the San Andreas fault
(transform).
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3. Plate Tectonics 36 Slide
THE GLOBAL SYSTEM OF
LITHOSPHERIC PLATES
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3. Plate Tectonics 38 Slide
CONTINENTAL RUPTURE
AND NEW OCEAN BASINS
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3. Plate Tectonics 39 Slide
CONTINENTAL RUPTURE
AND NEW OCEAN BASINS
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3. Plate Tectonics 41 Slide
ARC--CONTINENT COLLISION
ARC
ARC-CONTINENT COLLISION
ARC-
Island arc collides with the passive
continental margin. Sediments of the
continental shelf and continental
slope are compressed, forming folds
and thrust sheets.
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3. Plate Tectonics 42 Slide
3. Plate Tectonics continued
CONTINENT--CONTINENT COLLISION
CONTINENT
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3. Plate Tectonics 44 Slide
THE WILSON CYCLE AND Ocean basins open and close
in the Wilson cycle, which
SUPERCONTINENTS describes how continents
are split and reunited.
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3. Plate Tectonics 45 Slide
THE WILSON CYCLE AND
SUPERCONTINENTS
Stage 4a - Ocean basin begins to close
as continental plates collide. New
subduction boundaries form.
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3. Plate Tectonics 46 Slide
THE WILSON CYCLE AND
SUPERCONTINENTS
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3. Plate Tectonics 47 Slide
THE POWER SOURCE FOR
PLATE MOVEMENTS
Power to move lithospheric plates - heat
released by radioactivity.
• Elements have unstable isotopes that spontaneously
emit energy or matter through radioactive decay.
• The energy is absorbed by the surrounding matter -
radiogenic heat.
• Earth’s radiogenic heat is released in the rock beneath
the continents.
• One theory is that plate motions are produced by
convection currents in hot mantle rock.
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3. Plate Tectonics 48 Slide
CONTINENTS OF THE
PAST
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3. Plate Tectonics 49 Slide
Chapter Review
3. Plate Tectonics
50
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