Plate Tectonics Practice Questions and Answers

Revised August 2007

1. Please fill in the missing labels.

Moho Mantle Outer core

Inner core Crust

2. Please fill in the missing labels. Mid-ocean ridge or Divergent margin Lithosphere Trench or Convergent margin

Asthenosphere

Mesosphere

3. How many large plates form the outer shell of the earth? 7 4. What lies directly beneath the crust? Mantle 5. The upper mantle and crust make up what major tectonic feature of our planet? Lithosphere 6. What lies directly beneath the lithosphere and is around 200 km thick? Asthenosphere 7. Continental crust is thicker than oceanic crust. 8. Oceanic crust is on average how thick? 7 km 9. A common rock type found within continental crust is called Granodiorite or granite. 10. A common rock type found within oceanic crust is called Basalt. 11. According to plate-tectonic theory where is new oceanic crust being formed? Mid-ocean ridge or Divergent margin

12. Where are melts most likely to be produced by the adiabatic rise of mantle? Mid-oceanic Ridges and Hot Spot 13. The San Andreas fault is a classical transform boundary. 14. The East Pacific Rise and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge represent divergent boundaries. 15. What is subduction? Subduction is when one lithospheric plate descends beneath another 16. What is the likely cause of melting of mantle material along convergent margins? As the the subducted slab descends to about 100 km. water and other volatiles are driven off. 17. The inner core is composed of iron and nickel. 18. What state is the inner core likely in? It is either a solid or a very viscous liquid 19. The outer core is more dense than the mantle. 20. Most of the volume of our planet is composed of Mantle. 21. The Mohorovicic discontinuity separates the mantle from the crust. 22. What produces the Earths magnetic field? The motion of the fluid outer core produces the earths magnetic field 23. The asthenosphere is composed of partially melted mantle. 24. New lithosphere is produced at Mid-ocean ridges or divergent margins. 25. Lithosphere is destroyed at convergent margins. 26. The mesosphere underlies the asthenosphere. 27. Please list the seven major lithospheric plates of our planet. North American, South American, African, Eurasian, Indian-Australian, Antarctic, Pacific 28. The trailing edge of the South American plate lies where? Extends from the east coast of the South American continent to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge 29. Silicate liquids that exist beneath the surface of the Earth are called Magma. 30. Silicate liquids that have flowed out onto the Earth's surface or seabed are called Lava. 31. Strato or composite volcanoes are typical of Volcanic Arcs. 32. Mt Shasta and Lassen formed in what kind of tectonic setting? Volcanic Arc setting associated with a convergent margin 33. Beneath arcs at what depth does melting likely occur as a result of dehydration reactions? About 100 km. 34. What are the four driving forces behind plate motion? Convection, Gravitational Sliding , Slab pull , Ridge push 35. Forearc basins occur between subduction complexes and magmatic arcs. 36. What kinds of plate boundaries are found in California? Divergent , Transform and Convergent 37. Which of the seven major lithospheric plates consists mostly of oceanic lithosphere? Pacific 38. The San Andreas fault separates the Pacific plate from the North American plate. 39. Where is the Juan de Fuca plate? The Juan de Fuca plate lies off shore of Northern California, Oregon, Washington 40. Where is the Pacific plate? The Pacific plate underlies the Pacific Ocean

41. On the following map please identify the 7 major lithospheric plates pointed to by the labels A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. North American Eurasian Pacific African

Indian-Australian South American Antarctic

42. On the following illustration please identify the major components of a convergent margin pointed to by the labels A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

Volcanic Arc Trench Forearc Basin Moho

Mantle Crust Asthenosphere

43. On the following illustration please identify the major tectonic components of the western North American margin labeled (A), (B), (C), and (D)

Juan de Fuca Microplate

North American Plate

San Andreas Fault

Pacific Plate

44. On the following illustration please identify the features pointed to by labels A and B.

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Transform Fault

45. On the following illustration please identify the feature labeled A.

East Pacific Rise

46. Which of the following, A or B, is representative of a fast-spreading center? Answer: Fast spreading centers typically do not develop a rift valley- A is therefore an example of a fast-spreading Center

47. As plates move around on the globe they often times collide with each other. Examples include arc-arc and arc-continent collisions. At least twice in the distant pass, all of the continents on planet Earth assembled into a supercontinent. The earliest supercontinent formed about 1.1 b.y. to 750 m.y. ago, and the latest formed about 248 m.y. ago. What were the names of the former and latter supercontinents? Rodinia ang Pangaea 48. Please identify the features pointed to by the labels A, B, C, and D. What continent lies in the middle of the image? What oceans lie to the west and east of this continent?

Leading Edge Trailing Edge

Trench

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

The continent is South America. The Pacific ocean lies along its western margin while it is bordered to the east by Atlantic ocean. 49. The expanding Earth hypothesis was first formulated in the 1950s by S. Warren Carey, an Australian geologist. Though Professor Carey recognized sea floor spreading and the idea that the continents had once been assembled into the supercontinent of Pangaea, he did not recognize an important element of the modern day plate tectonic paradigm. What was that element and how does it weaken the expanding Earth hypothesis? Subduction an idea that is central to the notion that newly created lithosphere at Mid- ocean ridges is destroyed along converging margins; hence, if over the time frame of millions of years the rate of production of new lithosphere is balanced by its rate of destruction, then the Earth must maintain a constant size.

Asteroid dust has same composition as meteorites

A sample of asteroid dust has clinched the link between them.

September 12, 2011 Published: September 12, 2011

Its long been suspected that the meteorites striking Earth come from S-class, or stony, asteroids. The main evidence for that link is the spectra of stony asteroids, which can be measured by telescope. The spectra are almostbut not quitethe same as those of so-called chondritic meteorites, which have chemical abundances that reflect those of the early solar system. Perhaps, some researchers have asserted, the asteroids surfaces have been altered by a process known as space weathering, but unambiguous proof was missing. Definitive evidencea sample of dust particles from the surface of a stony asteroid named Itokawawas supplied by the Hayabusa spacecraft, which was launched in 2003 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. (The photocourtesy of JAXAreveals a kidney-shaped Itokawa, just 535 m long.) A capsule containing Hayabusas precious cargo landed in Australia in June 2010. After a year of painstakingly analyzing the sample with cutting-edge tools, researchers recently reported their results. The finding that the grains from Itokawas surface have the same composition as chondritic meteorites proves that the meteorites do indeed come from S-class asteroids. (T. Nakamura et al., Science 333, 1113, 2011; H. Yurimoto et al., Science 333, 1116, 2011; M. Ebihara et al., Science 333, 1119, 2011; T. Noguchi et al., Science 333, 1121, 2011; A. Tsuchiyama et al., Science 333, 1125, 2011; K. Nagao et al., Science 333, 1128, 2011.)Barbara Goss Levi

http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/physics_update

A handheld optical device for image-guided surgery

Near-IR lasers, fluorescently tagged nanoparticles, and tomographic reconstruction form the basis of a prototype device that could help surgeons locate and excise tumors.

October 31, 2011 Published: October 31, 2011 Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer-aided x-ray tomography (CT) can both provide surgeons with an image of a malignant tumor before an operation. But neither technique is compatible with surgery. To excise a tumor without damaging healthy tissue, a surgeon needs a safe, convenient means to see the tumor's edges while the patient lies on the operating table. A collaboration led by Huabei Jiang of the University of Florida in Gainesville and Lily Yang of Emory University in Atlanta aims to reach that goal with an imaging system based on fluorescent molecular tomography (FMT). The patientor at this stage of R&D, the lab mouseis given a dose of nanoparticles, which make their way to a tumor, stick to its surface, and fluoresce in the near-IR. Photons in that waveband can penetrate about a centimeter into tissue, but they also scatter heavily, which complicates imaging. Forming a surgically useful 3D image entails using a sensitive and compact imager that can view the target from several angles and then applying a sophisticated reconstruction algorithm. The front end of the GainesvilleEmory imager consists of 25 optical fibers bundled together like a handful of pencils. Ten of the fibers deliver near-IR laser light to the target; the other 15 send the returning fluorescent light to a CCD detector. Moving the fibers over the target yields the image. In a recent test, the FMT imager reliably delineated tumors 5 mm beneath a mouse's skin with a precision of 0.5 mm laterally and 1.5 mm axially. (Q. Zhao et al., Med. Phys. 38, 5873, 2011.)Charles Day

http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/physics_update

Making waves with the Moon's shadow

As it sails across Earth during a solar eclipse, the lunar shadow creates a bow wave in the ionosphere like a moving boat does in water. October 17, 2011 Published: October 17, 2011 That's what researchers in Taiwan and Japan found when they analyzed data from more than 1400 GPS receivers on those islands during the long-lived eclipse of 22 July 2009. Predicted more than 40 years ago, the wave effect arises from the localized cooling within the darkest regions of the shadow; the temperature, density, and pressure differences set up acoustic gravity waves that ripple along, ahead of and outward from the faster moving shadow's leading edge. The researchers note that the receivers, each gathering data from 9 or 10 GPS satellites, give them about 13000 lines of sight through Earth's atmosphere, which allows them to tease out the spatial distribution of total electron content in the ionosphere with 30-second time resolution. The acoustic gravity waves they saw had periods of 23 minutes and 5 minutes and formed two wavefronts. The analogy to a moving boat is actually quite accurate in that the bow wavefront spreads at a much slower velocity than the boat is moving; the eclipse shadow was clocked at 954 m/s, the ripples at 300 m/s. What's more, the Earth scientists also saw a stern wavefront consistent with the hydrodynamic predictions, separated from the bow wave by about 1700 km the length of the shadow boat. (J. Y. Liu et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L17109, 2011.)Stephen G. Benka

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Toward an easily fabricated artificial leaf

Sunlight, silicon, and readily available catalysts turn water into hydrogen and oxygen. October 13, 2011 Published: October 13, 2011

Photosynthesis, the original green technology, converts solar energy into the chemical energy of nourishing sugars. In the step that crucially depends on sunlight, plants and other organisms use solar energy to break water down into oxygen and hydrogen. Today, research teams worldwide are replicating that ubiquitous natural feat in the lab. One group, led by MITs Daniel Nocera, has now devised an artificial leaf with several attractive features: Its compact, uses inexpensive and easy-to-get materials, works in environments that are not corrosively acidic or basic, and allows wireless operation. The figure shows the oxygen bubbles generated by a 1 2 cm artificial leaf immersed in an electrolyte; the device, though, can also function in pure water. The apparatus consists of a piece of silicon covered by catalytic chemicalson one side is a compound called cobalt oxygen-evolving catalyst; on the other an alloy of nickel, molybdenum, and zinc. When struck by light, the silicon spits off electrons and holes that, aided by the catalysts, induce the waters disintegration. Nocera and colleagues expect they can readily increase the modest efficiency of their proof-of-principle artificial leaf; at present, in wireless mode, 2.5% of the incoming radiation energy is chemically stored, though a variation with wires achieves 4.7% efficiency. Those figures are a bit better than the efficiencies typical of crop plants, but more expensive artificial systems have achieved efficiencies of 18%. (S. Y. Reece et al., Science, in press, doi:10.1126/science.1209816)Steven K. Blau

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Squeezed light for gravitational waves

By tinkering with lights quantum fluctuations, researchers have improved the sensitivity of one of the interferometers that they hope will one day detect the elusive gravitational waves. October 3, 2011 Published: October 3, 2011

There is little doubt that gravitational waves exist. Indirect evidence for them is strong. But they have yet to be directly observed, despite teams of researchers looking for them with a network of extraordinarily sensitive interferometers. And those interferometers are running up against the shot-noise limit: Their main source of noise, at least at the high-frequency end of their bandwidth, comes from the quantum fluctuations of light, which can be interpreted as the zero-point electromagnetic fluctuations of the vacuum itself. Now, researchers led by Roman Schnabel (University of Hanover, Germany) have beaten the shot-noise limit of the GEO 600 interferometer near Hanover. They did it by using squeezed light, an optical state in which the electric-field uncertainty at part of the electromagnetic wave is reduced at the expense of the uncertainty at another part. As shown in the figure, they injected a squeezed vacuuma squeezed electromagnetic state with alternating high and low uncertainty, but with no underlying bright waveinto the interferometers signal output port. The squeezed vacuum, combined with the high-power laser light injected at the other side of the beamsplitter, altered the quantum fluctuations of the light traversing the 600-m arms and ultimately reduced the noise of the interferometers output. Because squeezing degrades rapidly as light is attenuated, squeezing the input vacuum by an experimentally challenging factor of 10 reduced the output variance by just a factor of 2. A planned upgrade to GEO 600 to reduce optical losses should make the squeezing even more effective. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Nat. Phys., in press, doi:10.1038/nphys2083.)Johanna Miller

http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition/physics_update