?

What is plate Tectonics?

The Earth is composed of major and minor plates

Layers of Earth responsible

for Plate motion

Crust
Oceanic crust The thin crust under
the oceans
continental crust denser in nature
Mantle
Under the crust is the rocky mantle
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere

zones within which relative motion is

achieved are relatively narrow, defining
large tracts of relatively stable, rigid
earth's surface. These are the tectonic
plates.

Phenomenon of Plate motion

Lithosphere
cool and behave as a
more or less rigid shell.

Asthenosphere
Its hot and finds a weak place in the
lithosphere to rise buoyantly as a
plume, or hotspot Occasionally.

Role of Mantle in Plate Moveme

What are the driving forces?
Convection currents or gravity?

b) Process of convection in
heating Water.
a) Convection currents in the mantle

Types of Plate Boundaries

Divergent Plate Boundary

The place where new oceanic crust is

formed is called a spreading ridge.
An example of a spreading ridge is the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge at the bottom of the
Atlantic Ocean.

Convergent Plate Boundary

Motion between convergent
boundaries
The Boundary of plates where collision takes place are termed as
convergent plate boundaries
Collision results in Subduction.
What is Subduction?
These collision can be seen between
Continent- Continent
Continent Ocean
Ocean - Ocean

The location where sinking of a plate occurs is called a subduction

zone.
As it slides below the continental crust, sinking deeper into the hot
mantle,
the oceanic crust begins to melt.
This melted oceanic crust becomes less dense (because it is now in
a liquid form) and
therefore rises towards the surface causing
continental crust to rise up above it,
forming mountains and volcanoes and high plateaus.

Continent -continent collision

When two continents meet head-on such collision seen.

No subduction takes place. Why?

E. g. The Indian plate collision with the Eurasian

plate giving rise to present height of Himalayas
and Tibetan plateau

Oceanic- Oceanic Convergence

Here Two oceanic plates converge

One subducts under other
Results
a) Trenches
e.g. Marianas Trench -11,000 mts. Deep
Volcanoes that are marine volcanoes
Later forming island arcs.

Continental - Oceanic Convergence

This collision takes place between continent and an oceanic plate.

The Oceanic plate subducts under the continental plate
Results in

Trenches
Volcanic arcs

Transform Boundaries

The zone between two plates sliding horizontally past one another is
called a transform-fault boundary, or simply a transform boundary.
A famous example of such a collision is the San Andreaes fault in California.

Evidences
1

2.Continental
drift
Map showing distribution of fossils on the
southern continents. These distributions caused
Wegener to join the continents as shown in the
map.

The tectonic activities as earthquakes, volcanism at the boundaries of plates.

4.
The concentration is striking, and indeed this plot serves to define the plate
boundaries extremely well. here are ridges, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where
plates are separating that are produced by lava welling up from between the plates
as they pull apart. Likewise, there are mountain ranges being formed where plates
are pushing against each other (e.g., the Himalayas, which are still growing).
Plate tectonic motion, which may be only centimeters per century, is now being
studied by careful laser ranging techniques that are capable of detecting such
small motions.