Plates – rigid sections of the lithosphere that move
as a unit.
Plate Tectonics – a theory which suggests that
Earth’s crust is made up of plates that interact in
various ways, thus producing earthquakes,
mountains, volcanoes and other geologic feature.
Three Types of Plate Boundaries
• Divergent—Boundary where plates move
apart, thus creating a zone of tension.
(ex: Great Rift Valley—Africa; Mid ocean
Ridges)
• Mid-ocean ridge – a continuous mass of
land with long width and height on the
ocean floor.
Divergent Boundaries occur where plates move
apart. There are two types of divergent or
constructive boundaries:
**Mid-Ocean Ridge
**Rift Valley
Mid- Ocean Ridge- New ocean floor, mountains,
earthquakes and volcanic action occur when an
ocean plate spreads apart (Mid-Atlantic Ridge:
largest mountain range in world.)
- Most divergent boundaries are situated
along underwater mountain ranges
called oceanic ridges.
- Mid-Atlantic Ocean ridge is an example
of spreading center which causes the
divergence of the South American plate
and the African plate.
Rift Valley- Continent starts to split apart
forming a rift valley and eventually a seaway
and then an ocean. Volcanic activity and
earthquakes occur in these areas. (Ex: African
Rift Valley)
- When a spreading center develops
within a continent, the crust may break
into several segments.
- The breaking leads to the formation of
down faulted valleys called rift valleys.
Three Types of Plate Boundaries:
• Convergent—Boundary where plates
come together (ex: Himalayan
mountains, Alps)
• Philippine plate and Eurasian plate
• Subduction – an event in which a slab of
rock thrusts into the mantle.
• Trench – a depression in the seafloor;
submarine valleys; Philippine trench
• Earthquakes
Convergent Boundaries form when two tectonic
plates come towards each other. There are three
types of convergent boundaries or destructive
boundaries.
**continent - continent
**ocean – ocean
**continent – ocean
Continent -Continent: Mountains form and
earthquakes occur when continental plates run into
each other and fold upwards. (Ex: Himalayas and
Alps)
• When two continental plates converge,
a collision zone is formed.
• Subduction ceases, no trench, volcano
and island arc are created during the
process.
• Mountain range – a large group of tall
mountains.
• India and Eurasia collided to begin the
formation of the most visible product of
plate tectonics – the Himalayas.
• Associated with shallow earthquake
activities.
Ocean Plate-Ocean Plate: Volcanic island arcs,
trenches & earthquakes occur when older ocean
plate subducts under a younger ocean plate.
(Ex: Japan, Aleutian Islands-off Alaska,
Philippines, Tonga Islands, Marianas Trench).
• Underwater earthquakes can generate
tsunamis (“harbor wave”) which is a
series of ocean waves with very long
wavelengths.
• The molten material will rise to the
surface creating a volcanic island arc
parallel to the trench.
• Volcanic island arc – is a chain of
volcanoes position in an arc shape.
Formation of the Philippine Archipelago
• Many parts of the Philippines originated
from oceanic-oceanic convergence.
 • Philippines Mobile Belt – formed 65
million years ago at the southern edge
of the Philippines Sea Place, thus it is
considered as part of the island arc.
• Palawan, Mindoro and the Zamboanga
Peninsula are sections of the
Sundaland block of the Eurasian plate.
• Philippine Mobile Belt collided with the
Sundaland block.
• On the eastern side of the Philippines,
trenches like the Philippines Trench and
East Luzon Trough are both products of
subducting Philippines Sea Plate beneath
the archipelago.
• The downward movement of oceanic
lithospheres underneath the Philippine
archipelago creates active volcanic chains,
like from Taiwan to Mindoro. (Pinatubo &
Taal)
Ocean Plate-Continent Plate: Mountains,
volcanoes and earthquakes occur as an ocean
plate subducts under a continental plate. The
Oceanic plate melts; less dense-magma rises to
form volcanoes. (Ex: Andes, Cascade Range,
Sierra Nevada)
Three Types of Plate Boundaries:
• Transform—Boundary where two plates
slide along side each other (ex: San
Andreas Fault—San Francisco)
Strike-slip or transform boundaries occur where
two plates slide along side each other.
Earthquakes occur in these areas (Ex: San
Andreas Fault in California).
Most transform faults are located within the ocean
basins, there are a few that cut through the
continental crust.
The immediate concerns about transform fault
boundaries are earthquake activities triggered by
movements along the fault system.
Hot Spots The Hawaiian Islands are situated right
in the middle of Pacific plate and not along the
boundaries. These islands form as the Pacific plate
moves over a hot spot in the mantle.
• Hot spot is a concentration of heat in the
mantle capable of creating magma.
• Hawaii is known as that country that
contains chain of volcanic islands.
• An example of production of mountain
and volcano in the middle of the plate.
• The farther the volcano from Hawaii is,
the older and less active it is.
• A source of molten materials from the
mantle called mantle plume that formed the
volcanic island chains.
• As the Pacific plate moves, different parts of
it will be on top of the mantle plume to
receive the molten materials, thus creating
the volcanic islands.
• Continuing plate movement eventually
carries the island beyond the hot spot,
cutting it off from the magma source, and
volcanism ceases.
EARTH’S INTERIOR
CRUST
- the thinnest and the outermost layer of the Earth
that extends from the surface to about 32 km below.
- has 2 regions; continental crust
- made up of Si, O, Al, Ca, Na & K; thickness is mostly
35-40 km, found under land masses and less dense
rocks such as granite
oceanic crust
7-10 km thick; found under the ocean floor and made
up of dense rocks such as basalt; heavier
-has 2 layers;
upper layer
- granite, found only in continental crust; lower layer
- basalt
MANTLE
- beneath the crust, w/c extend to about 2900 km from
the Earth’s surface
- mainly made up of silicate rocks and makes up about
80% of the Earth’s total volume and about 68% of its
total mass
- mostly made up of Si, O, Fe and Mg
- lower mantle is denser than the upper portion due to
higher iron concentration
LITHOSPHERE
- crust and the uppermost part of the mantle from a
relatively cool, outermost rigid shell
- with the continents on top of it, is being carried by the
flowing asthenosphere
- about 50 to 100km thick
ASTHENOSPHERE
– soft weak layer beneath the lithosphere that is made
up of hot molten material
- has a temperature enough to facilitate a small amount
of melting and make it capable to grow
CORE
- has 2 layers;outer and inner core; 2900km below the
Earth’s surface; made up of Fe and Ni.
- the outer core (melted Fe & Ni) is moving around the
solid inner core, creating the Earth’s magnetism
- the inner core is made up of solid Fe and Ni
- the extreme temperature could have molten the Fe &
Ni but it is believed to have solidified as a result of
pressure freezing, w/c is common to liquids subjected
under tremendous pressure
Proofs that Inner Core is Made up of Fe & Ni
1. Fe and Ni are both dense and magnetic
2. overall density of the earth is much higher than
the density of the rocks in the crust
3. meteorite analysis have revealed that the most
common type is chondrite, Earth and the
meteorite roughly have the same density, thus
the Earth’s mantle rock and a meteorite minus
its iron, have the same density
Studying the Earth’s Interior
• During earthquake, it releases energy that
radiates in all directions from the focus in
the form of waves called seismic waves,
which are recorded in seismographs.
• 2 main types of seismic waves are body
waves and surface waves
• 2 main types of seismic waves are body
waves and surface waves
• They arrive after the main P and S
waves are confined to the outer layers
of the Earth.
• 2 types of surface waves: (1) Love
waves and (2) Rayleigh waves.
• Love wave is named after Augustus
Edward Hough Love, a British
mathematician who worked out the
mathematical model for this kind of
wave in 1911.
• It is faster than Rayleigh wave and it
moves the ground in a side-to-side
horizontal motion, like that of a snake’s
causing the ground to twist.
• It causes the most damage to structures
during an earthquake.
• It was named after John William Strutt,
Lord Rayleigh, who mathematically
predicted the existence of this kind of
wave in 1885.
• It rolls along the ground just like a wave
rolls across a lake or an ocean.
• It moves the ground either up and down
or side-to-side similar to the direction of
the wave’s movement.
• Body waves can travel through the
Earth’s inner layer.
• They used by scientists to study the
Earth’s interior.
• These waves are of a higher frequency
than the surface waves.
• 2 types of body waves; P-waves
(primary waves) and the S-waves
(secondary waves).
• The P-wave is a pulse energy that
travels quickly through the Earth and
through liquids.
• It is faster than the S-waves and
reaches a detector first after an
earthquake.
• It is aka the compressional waves,
travel by particles vibrating parallel to
the direction the wave travel.
• They force the ground to move
backward and forward as they are
compressed and expanded and it
travels through solids, liquids and
gases.
• The S-waves (secondary or shear wave)
is a pulse energy that travels slower
than a P-wave through Earth and solids.
• It force the ground to sway from side-to-
side, in rolling motion that shakes the
ground back and forth perpendicular to
the direction of the waves.
• The idea that the S-waves cannot travel
through any liquid medium led
seismologists to conclude that the outer
core is liquid.
• An epicenter is a point in the Earth’s
surface directly above the focus.
• Focus is the location where the
earthquake begins, wherein the ground
ruptures at this spot , then seismic
waves radiate outward in all directions.
• An epicenter is a point in the Earth’s
surface directly above the focus.
• In 1909, Yugoslavian seismologist
Andrija Mohorovicic found out that the
velocity of seismic waves changes and
increases at a distance of about 50 km
below the Earth’s surface.
• Led to the idea that there is a difference
in density between the Earth’s crust and
mantle.
• The boundary between these two layers
is called the Mohorovicic discontinuity
(“Moho).
• Based on the figure below, the waves
bend due to change in density of the
medium and as the depth increases, the
density also increases.
• P-waves are detected on the other side
of the Earth opposite the focus.
• Since P-waves are detected until 1030,
disappear from 1030 to 1420 (shadow
zone), the reappeared again, which is
due to the bending of the P-wave.
• The existence of a shadow zone,
accdg.to German seismologist Beno
Gutenberg, could only be explained if
the Earth contained a core composed of
a material different from that of the
mantle causing the bending of the P-
waves.
• The mantle-core boundary is called
Gutenberg discontinuity.
• From the epicenter, S-waves are
detected until 1030, from that point, S-
waves are no longer detected.
• This observation tells us that the S-
waves do not travel all throughout the
Earth’s body.
• Knowing the properties and
characteristics of S-waves and with the
idea that P-waves are bent to some
degree, this portion must be made of
liquid, thus the outer core.
• In 1936, Inge Lehmann, a Danish
seismologist, discovered a new region
of seismic reflection within the core, thus
the Earth has a core within a core.
• The outer part of the core is liquid based
from the production of an S-wave
shadow and the inner part must be solid
with a different density than the rest of
the surrounding material.
The Continental Drift
▪ In 1912, Alfred Wegener, a German
Meteorologist, proposed a theory that about
200 million years ago, the continents were
once one large landmass.
▪ He called this landmass Pangaea, (Gr. “all
Earth”)
▪ This landmass started to break into two
smaller supercontinent called Laurasia and
Gondwanaland during the Jurassic period.
▪ These smaller supercontinents broke into
the continents and these continents
separated and drifted apart.
Evidences of Continental Drift Theory
1) The Continental Jigsaw Puzzle → the
edge of one continent surprisingly matches
the edge of another: South America =
Africa, India = Antarctica = Australia,
Eurasia = North America.
2) Evidence from Fossils → fossils are
preserved remains or traces of organisms
from the remote past; Glossopteris, a
fossilized leaf found in 250 million years old
rocks, were located in the continents of
Southern Africa, Australia, India and
Antarctica, which are now separated from
each other by wide oceans.
3) Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus are
freshwater reptile. There fossils were
discovered in South America, Africa and
Antarctica. It is impossible for these reptiles
to swim over the vast oceans and move
from one continent to another.
4) Evidence from Rocks → fossils found in
rocks support the Continental Drift Theory;
the rocks themselves also provide evidence
that continents drifted apart from each
other;
• The folded cape mountains of
South America and Africa line up
 perfectly as if they were once a
long mountain range.
5) Coal Deposits → coal beds were formed
from the compaction and decomposition of
swamp plants that lived million years ago; it
was discovered in South America, Africa,
India, Southeast Asia and even Antarctica?
• This leads to the idea that
Antarctica once experienced a
tropical climate, thus, it might
have been closer before to the
equator.
The Seafloor Spreading
▪ Harry Hess and Robert Dietz.
▪ Hot, less dense material from below the
Earth’s crust rises towards the surface at
the mid-ocean ridge. This material flows
sideways carrying the seafloor away from
the ridge, and creates a crack in the crust.
▪ The magma flows out of the crack, cools
down and becomes the new seafloor.
▪ Overtime, the new oceanic crust pushed the
old oceanic crust far from the ridge, thus the
process allowed the creation of new bodies
of water.
▪ The Red Sea was created as the African
plate and the Arabian plate moved away
from each other.
▪ East Pacific Rise → most active sites of
seafloor spreading; Australia, South
America and Antarctica pulling away from
each other.
▪ During collision of oceanic and continental
plate, subduction occurs, as the new
seafloor is formed at the mid-ocean ridge,
the old seafloor farthest from the ridge is
destroyed at the subduction zone.
▪ If subduction is faster than seafloor
spreading, the ocean shrinks.
▪ When the seafloor spreading is greater than
the subduction, then the ocean gets wider.
▪ For example, Pacific Ocean is getting
smaller and the Atlantic Ocean is getting
wider.
1. Rocks are younger at the mid-ocean
ridge.
2. Rocks far from the mid-ocean ridge
are older.
3. Sediments are thinner at the ridge
4. Rocks at the ocean floor are younger
than those at the continents.
Continental Drift Theory ≠ Seafloor Spreading
Theory
-Continents moved through unmoving oceans &
that larger, sturdier continents broke through the
oceanic crust.
-The ocean is the actual site of tectonic activity.
Magnetic Reversal
▪ Seafloor spreading was strengthened with
the discovery that the magnetic rocks near
the ridge follow a pattern.
Aka magnetic flip of the Earth; it happens when
the North Pole is transformed into a South Pole and
vice versa due to the change in the direction of flow
in the outer core.
▪ The occurrence of magnetic reversals can
be explained through the magnetic patterns
in magnetic rocks, esp. those found in the
ocean floor.
▪ When lava solidifies, Fe bearing minerals
crystallize and then this minerals behave
like tiny compasses and align w/ the Earth’s
magnetic field.
▪ When magnetic reversal occurs, there is
also a change in the polarity of the rocks.
▪ This allowed scientists to visualize the
magnetic stripes in the ocean floor and to
construct a magnetic polarity time scale.
▪ New rocks are added to the ocean floor at
the ridge w/ approximately equal amounts
on both sides of the oceanic ridge.
▪ The stripes on both sides are of equal size
and polarity w/c seemed to be mirror
images across the ocean ridge, thus the
seafloor is spreading.
Plate Tectonic Theory
 ▪ It provided an explanation about the
movement of the lithospheric plates.
▪ A theory w/c suggests that Earth’s crust is
made up of plates that interact in various
ways, thus producing earthquakes,
mountains, volcanoes & other geologic
features.
▪ Heat is produced in the core that produces
convection in the mantle, thus causes the
plate to move around.
Convection Current
▪ When water is heated, the less dense
particles rise while denser particles sink.
▪ Once the hot less dense particles cool
down, they sink, and the other less dense
particles rise.
▪ In divergent plate boundaries, the hot less
dense rising material spreads out as it
reaches the upper mantle causing upward
and sideward forces, thus it lifts and splits
the lithosphere.
▪ In a convergent boundary, the hot magma
flows out of the mantle and cools down to
form the new ocean crust.
▪ The downward movement of the convection
current occurs along a convergent boundary
where the sinking force push the oceanic
plate downward.
▪ Because of convection current, the
tectonic plates are able to move slowly
along the plate boundaries
▪ Ridge Push → as an oceanic crust
moves away from divergent boundary, it
becomes denser than the newer
oceanic crust; as the older seafloor
sinks, the weight of the uplifted ridge
pushes the oceanic crust toward the
trench at the subduction zone.
▪ Slab Pull → the weight of the
subducting plate pulls the trailing slab
into the subduction zone.
• Electromagnetic Spectrum
- complete spectrum (or continuum) of all
forms of “light”
• electromagnetic wave
- electric and magnetic fields which
vibrate - thus making waves.
- are defined by the amount of energy
carried by/possessed by the photons
(bundles of wave energy).
- The energy of a photon is given by the
equation:
E = hf
- gamma rays have photons of high
energies while radio waves have
photons w/ the lowest energies.
• Waves
- Properties of electromagnetic waves
include speed, frequency and
wavelength
v=f x λ
• Relationship Between
Wavelength & Frequency
- All parts of the electromagnetic
spectrum travel at the same speed
- wavelength and frequency have an
indirect relationship.
- Frequency describes the number of
waves that pass a fixed place in a given
amount of time.
- Frequency is the number of waves that
pass a fixed point in unit time; also, the
number of cycles or vibrations
undergone during one unit of time by a
body in periodic motion.
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (German Physicist) -
hertz measurement, abbreviated Hz, is the
number of waves that pass by per second
Wavelength - distance between
corresponding points of two consecutive
waves.
“Corresponding points” - to two points or particles in
the same phase
• Radio waves
- Low energy waves with longest
wavelengths
- Includes FM (frequency modulation),
AM (amplitude modulation), radar and
TV waves
- Wavelengths of 1 m (10^ -1 m) and
longer
- Low frequency
 - remote control items, cell phones,
wireless devices, etc.
- produced by making electrons vibrate in
an antenna.
- used to transmit sound and picture
information over long distances.
- Low frequency waves =suitable for
communication
- Bec.of the curvature of the Earth, it
limits its travel within 80 km., thus
repeater is used.
- Repeater receives the signal and
retransmits it to the receiving station.
• Transmission and Reception of Radio
waves
a. Modulation - process wherein the carrier
wave is changed or varied with the
loudness and pitch of the original sound.
- 2 ways: AM and FM
- In AM, amplitude of a high frequency
carrier signal is varied accdg.to the
amplitude of the lower frequency
modulating signal.
- It can be used to transmit voice, music,
data and picture.
- In FM, the audio signal is modulating the
frequency of the oscillator.
b. ground wave –straight line path from
transmitter to receiver and it can hit the
ground and by reflected or it can move
along the earth’s atmosphere
c. sky wave – is directed upward, enters
the ionosphere and is reflected back to
Earth
• Classification of Radio Waves
a. Low Frequencies - 30 to 300 kHz
b. Intermediate Frequencies - 300 to 3
000 kHz.
c. High Frequencies - 3 000 to 30 000
kHz.
d. Very High and Ultra-High
Frequencies - 30 000 kHz to 100
000 MHz.
• Application of Radio Waves
- Satellites for communication
a. Comsat – for communication
b. Metsat – for meteorological
appliactions
c. Navsat – for navigation
d. Scientific satellites – orbiting
observatories
e. Landsat – Earth-resource
satellites
• Microwaves
- Have shorter wavelengths than radio
waves.
• Application of Microwaves
a. Satellite communications- can
penetrate the atmosphere of the
earth
- Travel around 35 000 km above the
equator and move at a speed of 11 300
km/h
- transmitted by an antenna to a satellite
b. Radar - radio detection and hanging
- Antenna whirls around continuously to
scan the surrounding area.
- Transmitter sends out a narrow beam of
microwaves in short pulses.
- A distant object reflects some of the
signal back to the receiver
c. Terrestrial Communication -
microwaves are used to transmit
television news coverage from
mobile broadcast vehicles back to
the station.
- Each cell has its tower that receives and
sends microwave signals
d. Microwave Oven - foods absorb
certain microwave frequencies very
strongly.
• Infrared
- Invisible electromagnetic waves that are
detected as heat
- Night goggles
- Used in heat lamps
- Higher energy than microwaves but
lower than visible light
- lies beyond the red end of the visible
light
- emitted by all objects
- Below 500°C = emits
- Above 500°C= emits and glows
- blue and green = colder temperature
- red and yellow = warmer temperature
• Application of Infrared Radiation
• Infrared photographs (provide useful details
• Infrared scanners (show the temperature
variation of the body and for medical
diagnosis)
• Infrared remote controls (TVs, video,
cassette recorders and other electronic
appliances.)
• Some night-vision goggles use IR.
• Some autofocus cameras have transmitter
that sends out infrared pulses.
• Visible Light
- human eyes can detect
- ROY G BIV (red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo, violet
- 4x10^-7 m to 7x10^-7m (wavelength of
white light
- spectrum of white light is therefore
called the visible spectrum (light).
• Ultraviolet Radiation
- Higher energy than light waves
- Have shorter wavelengths than the
visible light.
• Uses of Ultraviolet Radiation
a. UV lamps -used by banks to check the
signature on a passbook. identify fake
banknotes
b. activates vit. D in the skin and gives us
tanning effect.
• X ray
- High energy waves
- Shorter wavelengths but carries higher
energy than the UV
- Produced using an X-ray tube w/c are
emitted when a fast moving electrons hit
a metal target.
• Discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

Gamma rays

- Highest energy
- Shortest in wavelength
- Emitted by stars and some radioactive
substances
- Blocked from Earth’s surface by
atmosphere and thick concrete and Pb
• Uses of gamma rays
a. treat cancer through radiotherapy.
b. sterilization of drinking