Name: __________________________
Date: ___________________________
Geology 101: Plate Tectonics
Introduction:
Plate tectonics is the widely accepted scientific theory of large-scale movements and deformation of the
Earth's lithosphere (the crust and upper mantle). All of the continents and ocean floor that we see today
sit upon rigid plates that are independent of one another. These plates can contact each other in several
different ways. This contact forms boundary zones at the edges of the plates and can be classified as such:
convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries and transform boundaries. The implication is that the
continents have not always been in the position that they are in today. They have been constantly moving
across the surface of the earth. In fact, once upon a time, (200 – 300 million years ago) the continents
came together to form one super-continent named Pangea and a global sea named Panthalassa. The
formation and subsequent breakup of this super continent occurred because of tectonic processes.
Objective:
This lab's objective is to define the three types of plate tectonic boundaries, how they interact with each
other and how they affect, create and alter the geology that surrounds them both above and below the
surface. Also this lab is intended to make a student familiar with a Plate Tectonic World Map and to
define tectonic hot spots.
Part I. Types of Plate Boundaries
There are three types of boundaries associated with plate tectonics. Please go to this website:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/understanding.html and read about these boundaries in order to
answer the questions below.
1.
What are the three types of tectonic 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 created at one?
4.
Name one spreading center (or divergent plate boundary).
5.
What are the three types of convergent plate boundaries?
6.
Describe the crustal interactions at subduction zones—naming the crustal types involved.
7.
What type of convergent boundary formed the Himalaya Mountains?
8.
What happens along a transform plate boundary?
9.
Name the famous transform fault in the western United States.
10.
Which plates are sliding past each other along this fault? (from question 9)
Part II. Tectonic Boundary Interactions
Now please go to this 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 plat interactions. List, from left to right, each
types of plate boundary shown in the activity.
Now, go to http://emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/forteachers/flashmovies/Spreading.swf Wait a few seconds
for it to load a movie.
12.
What is happening to the plates at the red line in the center of the screen?
Now go to http://emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/forteachers/convergence.htm and click on the picture labeled
“Subduction.” Wait for it to load another movie.
13.
What two kinds of convergence are shown in the movie?
Part III. Tectonic Maps and Hot Spots
For this next section please go to http://emvc.geol.ucsb.edu/forteachers/flashmovies/Pangea.swf and
watch the continent Pangea break up. This animation shows how the continents looked around 150-200
million years ago when they were all part of the super-continent Pangea and the subsequent breakup to
the familiar continental placement we see today.
14.
During the time of Pangea, what continents were in direct contact with North America?
Next go to: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/Maps/map_plate_tectonics_world.html
This is a map of the tectonic plates and their respective boundaries.
15.
Referring to the map in the link above, what plates are in contact with the Pacific Ocean?
16.
What is the Ring of Fire and what type of plate interaction is responsible for its formation?
The Hawaiian Islands are known as a volcanic island chain. Each island has formed in succession of its
predecessor however it occurs in the center of the Pacific Plate where no contact between another plate
occurs. (For a visualization go to: http://education.sdsc.edu/optiputer/flash/hotSpots.htm.) In this lab, we
have seen volcanic islands form at divergent plate boundaries and subduction zones. Please go to:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/hotspots.html#anchor19620979 to answer the last two questions.
17.
How did the Hawaiian Islands form and continue to form when they are positioned in the middle
of the Pacific plate?
18.
How can the direction of the Pacific plate movement be tracked by following the line of islands
extending from Hawaii to the Emperor Seamount Chain. (See the “long trail of Hawaiian Hot Spots”)