AP Environmental Science
Chapter 5: Plate Tectonics Web Quest
Please complete the 23 questions below in your notes, as you move through helpful websites that allow you to
interact with plate tectonic simulations and resources. We will cover any questions in class and go over the
main ideas.
Part 1. Types of Plate Boundaries
There are 3 types of plate boundaries and a fourth called a “plate boundary zone” in which the type
of plate boundary is not clearly defined. Go to the website:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/understanding.html
and learn about the three types of plate boundaries and answer the questions below.
1. What are the three types of plate boundaries?
2. What directions do the plates move relative to one another in a divergent plate boundary?
3. What is a spreading center and what is made at one?
4. Name one spreading center (or divergent plate boundary).
5. What are the three types of convergent plate boundaries? Give an example of each one.
6. What two kinds of crust are involved in a subduction zone?
7. What type of convergent boundary is the Himalaya Mountains formed by?
8. What happens along a transform plate boundary?
9. Name a famous transform fault in western North America.
10. Which plates are sliding past each other along the San Andreas Fault?
Part 2. Plate Boundary Interactions
Now go to the website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tectonics/# and click on “Go directly to
Plate Tectonics Activity”
11. Drag each of the arrows in the activity to see the plate interactions. List from left to right each type
of plate boundary shown in the activity.
Now, go to http://emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/forteachers/SeafloorSpreading.htm and scroll down to the “Seafloor
Spreading” picture and click on the picture. Wait a few seconds for it to load, and there should be a
movie.
12. What is happening to the plates at the red line in the center of the screen?
13. What is the red line?
Now, go to http://emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/forteachers/convergence.htm and click on the picture labeled
“Subduction”. Wait for it to load, and there should be another movie.
14. What two kinds of convergence are shown in the movie?
Part 3. Plate Tectonic Maps
Now go to http://denali.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/lowman/Lowman_map1_lg.jpg and you will see a plate
tectonic map of the world. Rest the mouse on the bottom right corner of the map and after a couple of
seconds an enlargement icon should appear. Click on this icon to see the map in full size. Now you can
use the scroll bars on the side and bottom to maneuver around the map.
15. Using the key at the bottom of the map, what is happening in Idaho, tectonically speaking?
16. Scroll over to Asia and locate the Java Trench. This is where the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate
interact. What kind of plate interaction occurs here, that was responsible for the December 26, 2004
tsunami?
Now open http://emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/2_infopgs/IP4WNACal/dSoCalifTect.html
17. How does the plate boundary along the west coast of the United States change over time?
Now go to http://emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/forteachers/flashmovies/Pangea.swf Wait for the movie to
download. This is a movie showing how the plates looked around 150 million years ago, when all the
continents were together forming the “supercontinent” Pangea, and how the plates moved through time to
their present configuration.
18. What continents did North America used to be attached to during Pangea time?
Part 4. Hot Spots
Now, go to the website: http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/hotspots.html to read and learn about hot
spots.
19. What are hotspots and how did they form the Hawaiian islands?
20. Where are some other hotspots located ?
Part 5, Create an Earthquake
Go to the following website and create a website.
http://www.sciencecourseware.com/VirtualEarthquake/VQuakeExecute.html
21. Record the steps for finding the epicenter of an EarthQuake.
Volcanic Eruptions & Weather/Climate Change
Though environmental scientists argue that global warming is a real phenomena causing significant reaching
effects on a variety of global systems, outspoken skeptics argue that climate change is a fabrication and
fallacy. Media personality Rush Limbaugh has repeatedly asserted his opinion that "natural phenomena such
as volcanic eruptions emit pollutants in volumes that dwarf those produced by human activity, thus proving that
fears of global climate change are fabricated."
More than 80 percent of the Earth's surface -- above and below sea level -- is of volcanic origin. Gas
emissions from volcanic vents over hundreds of millions of years formed the Earth's earliest oceans and
atmosphere, which supplied the ingredients vital to evolve and sustain life. Over geologic eons, countless
volcanic eruptions have produced mountains, plateaus, and plains, which subsequent erosion and weathering
have sculpted into majestic landscapes and formed fertile soils. But, although there are hundreds of active
volcanoes worldwide, most erupt only intermittently. A few erupt often, such as Hawaii's Mauna Loa, but most
erupt only once every few decades to once in several centuries. A few massive eruptions have occurred
during the past several thousand years, e.g., Mt. Mazama in Oregon, whose remains make up Crater Lake
National Park. And once every few hundred thousand years, a truly gigantic eruption occurs, producing
deposits such as California's Bishop Tuff and having profound local and regional effects on climate and life.
Within the past few centuries, several volcanic eruptions have had well-documented temporary effects on
terrestrial climate. One such event occurred in the late 1880's, the eruption of Krakatau in what is presently
Indonesia. Such eruptions are so powerful that they blast vast quantities off ash and gas into the stratosphere
(upper atmosphere) above the zone of atmospheric turbulence. This ash and gas layer stays in the
atmosphere for up to several years and is distributed globally by prevailing high-altitude winds. The ash and
gas reflect the solar radiant energy back to space before it can reach the lower atmosphere or the planet's
surface, thus resulting in cooling the Earth called the albedo effect. This cooling may last, as in the case of the
eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, for several years. In 1815, the volcano Tambura erupted in the East Indies,
producing the so-called "year without a summer" in parts of the Northern Hemisphere such as New England,
where snow fell in July, and much of western Europe, where crops failed.
Do volcanic eruptions have long-term effects? Pinatubo's eruptive volume was estimated at 9 billion cubic
yards (yd3).
Some Useful Conversions:
1 yd3 = 0.76 m3
1 ton = 2000 lb
1 metric ton = 1000 kg = 2200 lbs
1 kg = 1000 g = 2.2 lb
454 g = 1 lb
Question #22:
The total anthropogenic (human-produced) CO2 is approximately 7700 million tons per year. What
percentage of this number is the calculated CO2 content of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption? How many Mt.
Pinatubos would have to erupt to produce 10% of the total annual anthropogenic CO2? On the basis of these
calculations, do you conclude that volcanic eruptions dwarf human sources of CO2? Likewise, do they create
long-term climatic changes?
Question #23:
Access the link below and determine if volcanoes can have short-term effects upon weather patterns. Use
information from at least two case studies to support your hypotheses.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/index.php
LINKS TO Helpful Videos from class:
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/alfred-wegeners-theory-of-continental-drift.html