Landforms--Plate Tectonics Forces that Build

Why is the earth’s surface so dynamic in contrast to the Moon?

Tectonic forces/Gradational forces

Abraham Ortelius-1564-’Theatre of the World’

Abraham Ortelius in his work Thesaurus Geographicus... suggested that the Americas were "torn away from Europe and Africa... by earthquakes and floods" and went on to say: "The vestiges of the rupture reveal themselves, if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully the coasts of the three [continents]."

18th Century World Map-the ‘Jigsaw Earth’ becomes clearer

fossil evidence

Original explanation of species dispersal—land bridges??

What is so strange about coal being discovered in Antartica? How can it be explained?

Alfred Wegener-1911-German meteorologist/Theory of Continental Drift

Pangaea-225 million years ago

Mid-Atlantic Ridge-confirmed 1950s

New Oceanic Crust forming

Iceland at the Ridge

One of Iceland’s many active geysers

On the Move!

The Earth's magnetic field is slowly changing and appears to have been changing throughout its existence. When the tectonic plates form along the oceanic ridges, the magnetic field that exists is imprinted on the rock as they cool. The slowly moving plates act as a kind of a recorder leaving information about the strength and direction of past magnetic fields. By sampling these rocks and using radiometric dating techniques it has been possible to reconstruct the history of the Earth's magnetic field for the last 160 million years or so. Older "paleomagnetic" data exists but the picture is less continuous. An interlocking body of evidence, from many locations and times, give paleomagnetists confidence that these data are revealing a correct picture of the Earth's plate motions. In addition, if one "plays this tape backwards" the continents, which ride on the tectonic plates, reassemble along their edges with near perfect fits. These "reassembled continents" have matching fossil floras and faunas.

Polarity/Sea-floor Spreading- 1960s

Earth’s layers as a hard-boiled egg!

Lithosphere/Asthenosphere

Convection within the earth

The wafer-like crust floats on a choc. pudding consistency

There are 4 types of plate interactions. Each will have a different effect on landforms. 1. Divergence 2. Sideswipe (Transform boundary) 3. Convergence 4. Hot spots

Earthquakes-last 8 days

“ The quake hit San Francisco on Wednesday, April 18, at precisely 12 minutes past five o'clock in the morning. But San Francisco wasn't the only place to get hit… In San Jose, 8000 people were homeless. Santa Rosa, a town of 7000, was leveled. Trees were uprooted. Fences curved. And in some place the earth flowed like water. The quake had the impact of six million tons of TNT or roughly 12,000 times the power of the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. It remains the greatest natural disaster suffered by a North American city.

I shouldn't wonder if San Francisco had sunk. That was some earthquake. We don't know but the Atlantic may be washing up at the feet of the Rocky Mountains!" ---Jack London

Transform Boundaries—A sideswipe

Caribbean Plate interactions

Fault line through Haiti

East Africa Rift Zone

African Rift

Effects of this triple junction on Europe/The Middle East?

Vesuvius Victims-79 CE

Mount Vesuvius

African and Eurasian collision causing Italy’s volcanoes

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Mid Atlantic Ridge

Plate Convergence

Mount Saint Helens-convergent boundary-oceanic/cont

Himalayas-cont/cont convergence

Pele-Goddess of Fire

What are some of the effects of plate tectonics on humans?

Tsunami in China