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Chapter 3
Earth Materials and Plate Tectonics
Chapter Overview
Rocks and Minerals of
the Earths Crust
Major Relief Features of
the Earths Surface
Plate Tectonics
Continents of the Past
Mafic rock:
Mafic minerals
Dark-colored
More dense
Ultramafic rock:
Heavy mafic minerals
Very dense
Visualizing Physical Geography
Copyright 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers Inc.
Sandstone,
deposited in
layers
Conglomerate
Shale
Plate Tectonics
Motion of lithospheric plates drives formation of Earths
mountains and other surface features.
Extensional tectonic activity
Spreading boundary
Plates pulled apart
Faults created
Plate Tectonics
Plate Boundaries
Spreading boundary
Converging boundary
Transform boundary
Plate Tectonics: theory of
tectonic activity dealing with
lithospheric plates and their
activity
Plate Tectonics
Subduction Tectonics
Plates undergoing subduction are associated
with active continental margins
Sediments accumulate in deep trench
Deep ocean sediments
Terrestrial sediments
Deformed, scraped off subducting plate
Wedge forms at the plate boundary
Sediments transformed into metamorphic
rock
Subduction: descent of the edge of a lithospheric plate
under an adjoining plate and into the asthenosphere
Plate Tectonics
Orogens and Collisions
Continental suture: Long, narrow zone of crustal deformation produced by a
continental collision; examples: Himalayan Range, European Alps.
Continental lithospheric plates converge:
Both buoyantneither subducts
Orogeny: major episode of tectonic activity resulting in strata being deformed by folding
and faulting
Nappe: overturned recumbent fold of strata, usually associated with thrust sheets in a
collision orogen
Plate Tectonics
The Global System of Lithospheric Plates
Plate Tectonics
Continental Rupture and New Ocean Basins
Passive continental margins are created by
continental rupture and spreading
Crust uplifted and stretched
Magma rises to form new rock
Rift valley forms
Rift widens and narrow ocean is formed
Ocean basin widens
Plate Tectonics
The Power Source for Plate Movements
Radiogenic heat: heat generated by the decay of radioactive isotopes
Heat generated by decay of isotopes of uranium, thorium, potassium
Independent of surface conditions
Heat keeps rock below crust close to melting point
Radiogenic heat power source for plate motions
Exact mechanism unknown
Possibly convection currents in mantle
Possibly gravity
Pangaea: supercontinent
Intact about 300 million years ago
Outlines of continents fit across ocean
Tectonic structures match across
continents
Movements of
the continents
from 200 million
years ago to
present