PLATE TECTONICS o Distribution of Fossils

 Glosopteris- fern-like plant

 Lithosphere, the outer rigid layer of the earth, is divided in to  Seeds are too large to be airborne for
fragments, and these plates are moving in a constant motion long distances
with respect to each other  S. America, S. Africa, India, Antarctica,
o Floats above asthenosphere Australia
 Plate boundaries- intense geologic activities, where the  Lystrosaurus- land-dwelling reptile
plates meet  Mesosaurus- freshwater reptile
 Unifying concept o Match of Rock Structures and Ages
 Types of Plate boundaries  Match of mountain belts – Folded Appalachian
o Divergent- seafloor spreading Mountains (USA) continue to similar rocks and
o Convergent- subduction ages of Ireland, Scotland, Norway – Folded
o Transform- slide-past mountain ranges in South Africa match those of
 What is the driving force? (Push or pull) Argentina
o Internal heat  Match applicable only to rocks older than
o Convection of heat Cretaceous (145Ma): ⇒ start of drifting about
o Pull of gravity Jurassic time (200Ma)
 Mantle plume- initially, continents are broken apart by these o Statigraphy
mantle plume  Sequence of rocks
 Synthesis of two theories  Similar stratigraphy across join before drifting ⇒
o Continental drift consistent with adjacent environments of
o Seafloor spreading deposition before the drift
 A fine example of how the scientific method works and o Paleoclimate indicators
geological detective work at its best – observation⇒ problem  Coal deposits in Antartica
⇒ hypotheses ⇒ testing {generating data = observations} ⇒  Coal from abundant plant life
eliminating hypotheses ⇒ testing ⇒ fine-tuning . . .  Present Antartica: covered with 1 km
thick ice
Continental Drift
 Fossil coral reefs in North America, Eurasia
 Alfred Wegener, 1912- meteorologist, explorer  Marine, warm, clear waters
 Multi-disciplinary evidence – Met with skepticism (not  Evaporite deposits (salt), wind-blown sand:
surprising: healthy skepticism as characteristic trait of same story
scientists!) o Glaciation
 He was not able to present a driving force  Glacial deposits (tillites) in South America,
 Unrelenting in the search of evidences Africa, India, Australia: close to equator and far
 Not new idea! from latitude that could produce glaciation
o Abraham Ortelius, 1596  Glacial striations: grooves made by motion of
o A. Snider-Pelligrini, 1858 ice point to oceans as origin/source ⇒
 Evidences Whaaatttt? There got to be land!
o Continental Fit- basis  Matching glacial deposits and groves
 Pangaea o Apparent Polar Wandering Curves
 Gondwanaland and Laurasia  Assumption: The Earth has had only one North
 Started to break apart and South Pole at any given time
 Continents fit perfectly
 Solid metallic inner core and liquid metallic
outer core
 The Earth’s Magnetic Field The Earth’s Magnetic
Field
 Magnetic field on surface as a function of
– Local effects (rocks, etc) – Sun’s
activities (solar wind and auroras) – Core
processes: the major source
 !!! Take note: magnetic pole not same as
geographic pole!
 Declination- angle between the horizon
and the atmosphere
 Inclination- magnetic polarity
 How the magnetic field is recorded in rocks
recorded in rocks? A
 Above Curie temperature, no magnetic
alignment yet – For magnetite, Curie T
approx 575 degrees C
 Below Curie T, magnetic orientation is
fixed (location of North, inclination of
magnetic field), unless disturbed by
reheating, etc.
 Polar Wandering Curves
 Separate polar wandering curves for each
continent
 Rival hypotheses: – The Earth had more
than magnetic north at any given time in
the past! – The continents have drifted
apart and causing the apparent separate
wandering curves. There will be only one
curve if the continents are joined.
 There can only be 1 magnetic north ar a
time
 It is not the poles that are moving but the
continents
 Impact of the Theory Impact of the Theory
 Continents capable of lateral motions!
 Challenged the notion of largely up and
down motion
 His inspiration was the floating icebergs
 the continents were also floating
SEAFLOOR SPREADING THEORY
 Harry Hess (more credits) and Robert Dietz
o By 1960’s, more and more data on seafloor
topography became available
o Hess- Princeton
o Hess and Dietz’ “geopoetry”: midoceanic ridges as site
where seafloor spreads ⇒ no supporting evidence
 It was more creative rather than scientific
 F.J. Vines and D.H. Matthews, and L. Morley and A.
Larochelle
o Teams working independently
o Paleomagnetic patterns as evidence for seafloor
spreading
 The US created their own submarine and they mapped the
seafloor for navigation
o Hess mapped the seafloor during WWII
 They saw:
o Trenches
o Ridges
 New oceanic crust is generated along mid-ocean
ridges
 Ocean crust spreads laterally away from ridge
crest
 Oceanic crust becomes older, colder, and denser
(tendency to sink down) away as it spreads
away from mid ocean ridge
 Oceanic crust “consumed” along oceanic
trenches
o Volcanic islands
 SEAFLOOR SPREADING IS THE REASON WHY THE PLATES
ARE MOVING
 Evidences:
o Magnetic Anomalies
 F.J. Vines and D.H. Matthews, and L. Morley and
A. Larochelle Teams working independently
Paleomagnetic patterns as evidence for seafloor
spreading
 Nagrereverse yung magnetic field through time
 These strips record the reversal of field
 Polarity is reversed periodically- cause is
unknown
 Polarity is preserved in the rocks/ oceanic
crust
  Ontong Java flood basalts was then followed by  Continent-continental
a quiet period with no polarity reversal  mountain range (Himalayas)
o Oceanic lithosphere is generated at the ridges, and  Initially, there was a subduction zone
consumed at the subduction zones (oceanic lithosphere) but when the
o As the ocean floor becomes older, it becomes deeper continental lithosphere converges with
kasi denser continental, mountain ranges are formed
o Plate tectonics as an observed fact
 The plates move as fast as a growing fingernail,
3 cm per year
o Plate tectonics as a unifying concept
 It explains various geologic occurrences
o Eggshell theory
o NEW ZEALAND IS A NEW PLATE
 Plate Boundaries
o Divergent
 Oceanic ridges
 Mid-Atlantic, East Pacific Rise
 Rifts
 Red Sea, African Rift Valley (Arabian
Peninsula, African Plate)
 Decompression= Partial Melting
o Convergent- DESTRUCTIVE
 Oceanic-ocean
 island arc (Philippines, Japan)
 the older oceanic lithosphere is down
thrusted
o island arc/volcanoes are formed
 Oceanic-continent
 mountain range (Andes) o Transform fault CONSERVATIVE
o SUBDUCTION  San Andreas fault
 Oceanic lithosphere is down  MANTLE PLUMES+MOVING PLATES= HAWAII
thrusted= TRENCHES IN THE PHILIPPINES
 MAGMA GENERATION
o VOLCANOES=  Oceanic-Oceanic Plate
HIGH o Double subduction
PRESSURE TO o Manila trench, Philippine sea Plate, Eurasian plate
LOW PRESSURE  The Philippines is located at the pacific ring of fire thus the
 Introduction of water reason behind numerous earthquakes, volcanoes etc.
through the minerals o Volcanoes are parallel to the plate
introduced in the o The Philippines has numerous epicenters except
lithosphere- lowers Palawan (originally part of Eurasian Plate
the melting  Philippine Fault is the result of the double subduction system
temperature  Plate Tectonics and the Evolving Earth
 o The Earth’s evolution is still going on!
o The Earth’s internal heat drives mantle convection,
which results into plate motions, plumes, volcanoes,
earthquakes, mountain ranges, mineral deposits, etc.
 Geothermal Energy
o Water is turned into steam
o Steam powers the turbines
 Such disasters also gives us benefits such as minerals,
energy source