1. plate tectonics Why do we care? Tectonic plates Plate interactions How did we figure this out? Hazards

2. plate tectonics – Why do we care?

3. plate tectonics http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/slabs.html

4. earthquake.usgs.gov/ plate tectonics

5. The mechanism for moving plates: R: http://library.thinkquest.org/C003124/en/fullconvect.htm L: http://article.wn.com/view/2012/06/14/Add_more_than_water_to_your_ramen_noodle_package/ slab pull

6. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Plates can: 1) diverge 2) converge and subduct 3) converge and collide 4) slip past one another 5) move over stationary plumes

7. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 1) diverge at a mid ocean ridge OR within a continent:

8. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 1) diverge at a mid ocean ridge OR within a continent: East African Rift Valley – (courtesy USGS)

9. plate tectonics rifting 30 mya & 17 mya http://farm1.static.flickr.com/133/386879085_f5e2830999.jpg

10. plate tectonics Our very own San Luis Valley is part of the Rio Grande Rift System rifting 30 mya & 17 mya http://jugalbandi.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/gsdunes.jpg

11. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 2) subduct

12. 12 plate tectonics

13. How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 3) collide A continental collision between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate

14. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 4) slip past one another

15. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 5) move over stationary plumes

16. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 5) move over stationary plumes

17. plate tectonics How do tectonic plates interact? Tectonic plates can: 5) move over stationary plumes

18. plate tectonics http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/historical.html How do we know that continents drift? http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html

19. plate tectonics Alfred Wegener http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/wegener.html 1922

20. "Utter, damned rot!" said the president of the prestigious American Philosophical Society. "If we are to believe [this] hypothesis, we must forget everything we have learned in the last 70 years and start all over again," said another American scientist. Anyone who "valued his [or her] reputation for scientific sanity" would never dare support such a theory, said a British geologist. 20 Alfred Wegener Quotes from www.pangaea.org/wegener.htm plate tectonics

21. Alfred Wegener 1. continental margins fit together precisely http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1999/ofr-99-0132/

22. plate tectonics Alfred Wegener 2. mountain belts fit together

23. plate tectonics Alfred Wegener 3. fossilized plants and dinosaur fossils fit together http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/general_science/plate_tectonics/cont_drift.html

24. plate tectonics More evidence: seafloor spreading 1. seafloor ridges and trenches Peru-Chile Trench Mid-Atlantic Ridge

25. plate tectonics More evidence: seafloor spreading 2. curious pattern in earthquake locations

26. plate tectonics More evidence: seafloor spreading 3. symmetrical pattern of magnetic polarity on either side of seafloor ridges (magnetic reversal) http://www.discoverourearth.org/student/tectonics/sea_floor_spreading_i.html

27. plate tectonics More evidence: seafloor spreading 4. progressively older crust away from seafloor ridges http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Earth_seafloor_crust_age_1996.gif/300px-Earth_seafloor_crust_age_1996.gif

28. Hazards 1)Volcanoes 2)Earthquakes

29. Hazards 1) Volcanoes – gasses – carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, fluorine – lava flows – not so dangerous, but some move at 15 mph – eruptions – bombs, ash, dust into atmosphere – pyroclastic flows – very deadly, hot gas, ash, rock moving 100 mph + – lahars – very deadly – a grave concern in Pacific Northwest

30. Photo courtesy United States Geological Survey (USGS), photographer D. Harlow Pinatubo, June 1991

31. volcanism Mt St. Helens, May 1980

34. Figure from USGS “This Dynamic Earth”: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html

35. Figure from http://www.rt.com/usa/204599-hawaii-volcano-lava-house/

36. Figure from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/photos/kilauea-volcano-threatens-hawaiian-town-of-pahoa-1.2818843

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. 41 Tacoma, WA

42. 42

43. 43 Pinatubo ash fall in cm. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/paladio/index.html

44. Sept. 15, 2015

45. Hazards 2) Earthquakes (releases of stored elastic strain along a faults) – Ground shaking / building collapse – Fires – Landslides – Tsunamis

46. Some horrific earthquakes 1201, Egypt / Syria, 1.1 million killed 1556, China, 830,000 killed 1923, Japan, 200,000 killed 1976, China, 655,000 killed 2001, Western India, 21,000 killed 2003, SE Iran, 31,000 killed 2004, Indian Ocean, 300,000 killed 2005, Pakistan, 100,000 killed 2008, China, 70,000 killed 2010, Haiti region, 223,000 killed 2011, Japan, 18,000 killed 2015, Nepal, 9,000 killed 46

47. Loma Prieta, CA 1989 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/eq101/EQ101.htm

48. 48 https://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/iype/april/4_18.html 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire: 3,000 deaths 24 ft. of lateral slip!

49. Hebgen Lake, Montana

50. 50

51. 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami 51 Image source: http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/outreach/highlights/sumatra/what.html

52. impact on Banda Aceh http://www.unep.org/tsunami/Information_Requirement/PhotoGallery/photogallery.asp

53. impact on Banda Aceh

54. http://www.unep.org/tsunami/Information_Requirement/PhotoGallery/photogallery.asp impact on Banda Aceh

55. http://www.unep.org/tsunami/Information_Requirement/PhotoGallery/photogallery.asp impact on Banda Aceh

56. Plate Tectonics Outline Why do we care? Tectonic plates Plate interactions How did we figure this out? Hazards

59. 59

61. 61

62. 62 2.1MY 1.3MY 0.64MY

63. From USGS Publication: Truth, fiction, and everything in between at Yellowstone

64. http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/yellowstone_sub_page_54.html