Investigating Plate Tectonics with Google Earth
Working together: Your team should be grouped around a single computer for viewing Google
Earth or Excel. If you have another computer available, you could use it for filling out this
answer sheet electronically. Otherwise you can start with filling it in on paper.
Deliverables: The person responsible for actually turning in this assignment should email the
filled-in version of this Word file and the Excel spreadsheet to all the team mates and me by the
due date on the syllabus.
Grading: 75 points – Questions are worth 2 points unless otherwise marked (ex. [5]= 5 pnts).
You must support statements you make with explanations. Answers will be graded on accuracy,
completeness, and clarity.
Your task: In this investigation you will examine data sets of topography, bathymetry (ocean
depth), volcano location, earthquake location, and ocean floor age to determine the location
and attributes of different plate tectonic boundaries. After looking at global plate tectonics, you
will look at our study regions more closely (Pacific NW of USA and Himalaya).
Tips
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When you bring files into Google Earth, make sure you save them to My Places and then
FileSaveSave My Places. That way if Google Earth crashes, everything will reload
automatically when you restart.
You should uncheck data sets that you are not using for a given question because they
may interfere with each other (particularly the Age-of-Ocean-Floor).
Earthquakes and volcanos will not show up until you are somewhat zoomed in. You will
probably find that an eye altitude of 4000-5000km is best for balancing view scope with
data visibility.
A. Atlantic Ocean
Double-click plate tectonics exercise.kmz to open it in Google Earth (don’t load part2.kmz yet or
leave it not-visible)
Make the Atlantic cross-section visible (located in the Cross-sections folder) and Show the
Elevation Profile.
1. On the cross-section below, mark the transitions from continental crust to oceanic crust (Use
what you know about plate thickness. The actual sea level line does not necessarily tell you
where the edge of the continental crust is.)
2. Mark the plate boundary between North American and African plates.
3. [5 pnts] Using earthquake, bathymetry, and ocean floor age data, describe the lines of
evidence that support the location you have chosen for the plate boundary (this answer
should be a paragraph long and you should be certain to back up statements you make with
good explanations)
4. What type of earthquakes (shallow or deep) occur along the plate boundary?
5. Why does the plate boundary have an elevated profile (i.e. why the mid ocean ridge?)
(Consider density and temperature)
6. What rate (in mm/yr ) are each of the plates moving relative to the boundary? (You will need
to use the ocean floor age data and the Ruler tool to determine this)
7. What type of plate boundary is it?
8. [5] Using the diagnostic plate boundary features that you have determined from examining
the mid-Atlantic ridge, identify this same type of boundary in other places around the globe.
Go the final page of this assignment and mark in red all the boundaries that are the same
type as this one.
B. Sumatra
Make the Sumatra cross-section visible and Show the Elevation Profile.
9. Mark the boundary between the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates at the Earth’s surface.
Mark the location of volcanoes.
10. [5] Using earthquake, bathymetry, volcano, and ocean floor age data, describe the lines of
evidence that support the location you have chosen for the plate boundary. (this answer
should be a paragraph long and you should be certain to back up statements you make with
good explanations)
11. Describe how the earthquake depths change from southwest to northeast. What are these
earthquake locations demarcating?
12. What is the rate of Indo-Australian Plate motion? (this can be found directly from the Plate
Convergence data)
13. What type of plate boundary is it?
14. [5] Using the diagnostic plate boundary features that you have determined from examining
the mid-Atlantic ridge, identify this same type of boundary in other places around the globe.
Go the final page of this assignment and mark in blue all the boundaries that are the same
type as this one.
C. California
Zoom in on California (there is no cross-section, just make sure that the Continental Transform
Fault path is visible).
15. The transform fault that is shown here is the famous San Andreas Fault that separates the
Pacific Plate from North American Plate in this area. What type of earthquakes (shallow or
deep) is associated with transform faults?
16. [4] Where else do you find terrestrial transform boundaries? Go the final page of this
assignment and mark in purple other terrestrial transform boundaries. (Hint: there are a lot
less of them than the two previous types. It may help to come back to this question after
doing Section E.)
D. Pacific Northwest
Make the Juan de Fuca cross-section visible and Show the Elevation Profile.
16. [4] Based on what you determined in the first two sections, what type of plate boundaries
do you see represented here? Mark where you think they are on the cross-section. What is
your evidence for each? (explain your reasoning)
17. [4] If the first two sections showed more “typical” plate boundaries, what characteristics of
this area seem unusual? (explain your reasoning)
18. [3] The convergence rate between Juan de Fuca Plate and North America? (make sure Plate
Convergence path is visible)
How quickly is new Juan de Fuca Plate crust being generated? (same way you did in #6)
Do you think the plate is getting bigger, smaller, staying the same, or cannot be
determined?
19. Now watch the Pacific_spreading.mov animation that came in your zipped file. How would
you answer #18 now?
E. Himalaya
Make the Himalaya cross-section visible and Show the Elevation Profile.
20. You know from the reading that this is a continent-continent convergent margin. Using
topography, mark on the cross-section where you think the plate boundary is.
21. Watch the animation IndiaAsiaCollision_EMVC2008.mov. Do you still agree with where you
located the plate boundary? If you have changed your thinking, show the location of where
you would put the boundary now in a different color.
22. How has the boundary changed over the last 60 million years? What two types of crust
were involved 60 million years ago? When did it switch to being continent-continent?
23. [4] Given that you know the major driving force behind plate tectonics is the downward pull
of descending plates, how do you explain that India is still colliding with Asia at over
40mm/yr? What is keeping it going? (it may help to zoom out and consider the large
tectonic plate that India is part of. Make part2.kmz visible to see plate boundaries.)
24. What depth of earthquakes are associated with the Himalayan-Tibetan region?
25. [4] Where else do you find continent-continent boundaries? Go the final page of this
assignment and mark in green other continent-continent boundaries. (Hint: there are a lot
less of them than the first two types. At first glance, it may be hard to tell terrestrial
transform and continent-continent collision apart so you will have to look for plate motion
arrows and consider topography.)
F. Earthquakes in our study region
Make sure the part2.kmz file visible.
26. [4] Using the >6 Mag EQuake data set as well as the All EQuake 2010 2011 data set, which
type of plate boundaries are associated with bigger earthquakes and more numerous
earthquakes? (explain your reasoning)
27. [4] Compared to other convergent zones around the globe, would you pick out either of our
two case regions as being particularly seismically active compared to other convergent plate
boundaries based on the last decade of earthquakes? (explain your reasoning)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/what.html
For each section, fill in the type of boundary in the blank and use the freeform shape to mark
on the map all the same boundaries around the globe using the appropriate color. You should
be able to color code nearly all of the black plate boundary lines. Ask me if you have questions.
Section A: Red =
boundary
Section B: Blue =
boundary
Purple = transform
Green = continent-continent