LESSON 1
PLATE TECTONICS & SEA LEVEL CHANGES
Grade 10- Oprahfication | 1st Quarter | Mrs. Joan M. Carpio
PLATE TECTONICS AND SEA LEVEL CHANGES
(e-education.psu.edu)
Today, the Earth’s ocean is made up of the
large Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic
Oceans. These bodies of water were not
always in their current shape and
configuration. As a result, you can imagine
the large-scale changes in sea level that
would have accompanied their assembly
since the last supercontinent (Pangea)
began to break up some 250 million years
ago. These changes would have been very
slow but significant, operating on time
scales beyond those experienced by human
beings.
VIDEO NOTES:
● Continents - formed as Earth’s
crustal plates shifted and collided
over long periods of time.
● 600 million years ago - Pre-
Cambrian Era
● 540 million years ago - Cambrian
Era
● 470 million years ago - Ordovician
Era
● 400 million years ago - Devonian
Era
● 280 million years ago - Permian Era
● 240 million years ago - Triassic Era
● 200 million years ago - Jurassic Eta
● 120 million years ago - Cretaceous
Era
● 50 million years ago - Eocene Era
● 20 million years ago - Miocene Era
● 1.8 million years ago - Pleistocene
Era
The tectonic processes at work on the Earth
influence the size of ocean basins and
therefore, sea level in many, complex ways.
The following list gives an idea of some of
these processes and their interactions and
feedback mechanisms:
● rifting of tectonic plates at divergent
plate boundaries;
● assembly of micro-continents,
volcanic terrains, continents -
especially supercontinents like
Rodinia, Pangea, etc.;
1
Long-Term Sea Level Change (hundreds of
thousands to millions of years) is influenced
by factors that modify the size and shape of
ocean basins. Global or eustatic sea level
can change as the result of changes in the
number, size, and shape of ocean basins.
Throughout Earth's history, the global ocean
has been modified by plate tectonics. Often,
large continents assembled from smaller
ones produced more expansive oceans
between them. These expansive ocean
bodies were subsequently dissected when
supercontinents rifted and formed smaller
oceans out of the formerly vast oceans. For
visualization purposes, please watch the
quick paleogeographic animation below.
● subduction of tectonic plates at
ocean trenches at convergent plate
boundaries;
● eruption and formation of large
igneous provinces that originate
from massive extrusions of lava,
oceanic plateaus, hotspot volcanic
island chains, etc.;
● high rates of volcanism on the
seafloor volumetrically displace
water out of the ocean basin
producing higher sea levels (called
transgression of sea level);
● low rates of volcanism allow water to
return to the ocean basin and sea
levels drop (called regression of sea
level);
● when rocks cool from a molten state,
they contract in volume; this allows
subsidence to occur, especially
along the mid-ocean ridges, and sea
levels fall;
● When rates of volcanism are low,
rocks tend to cool faster and sea
levels drop as subsidence occurs.
● Conversely, when rates of volcanism
are high, it takes longer for the rocks
to cool, and sea level remains higher
for longer periods of time after the
rate of volcanism subsides.
LESSON 1
PLATE TECTONICS & SEA LEVEL CHANGES
Grade 10- Oprahfication | 1st Quarter | Mrs. Joan M. Carpio
What is uplift in tectonic plates?
What is uplift in tectonic plates?
- Uplift is the process by which the
earth’s surface slowly rises
either due to increasing upward
force applied from below or
decreasing downward force
(weight) from above. During
uplift, land, as well as the
seafloor, rises. The outer shell of
the earth, the crust, divides into
moving sections called plates.
What is an example of tectonic uplift?
- The Pamir Mountains, Tian Shan,
Altai, Hindu Kush, and other
mountain belts are all examples of
mountain ranges formed in response
to the collision of the Indian with the
Eurasian plate. Deformation of
continental lithosphere can take
place in several possible modes.
What is uplift in rocks?
- Uplift, in geology, vertical elevation
of the Earth’s surface in response to
natural causes. Broad, relatively
slow and gentle uplift is termed
warping, or epeirogeny, in contrast
to the more concentrated and severe
orogeny, the uplift associated with
earthquakes and mountain building.
How does tectonic uplift occur?
- Both uplift and sinking can be due to
plate tectonic movements, including
mountain building, or the
gravitational adjustment of the
Earth’s crust after material has been
removed (resulting in uplift) or added
(resulting in sinking) such as ice or
sediment.
What do you mean by upliftment?
- 1 : to lift up : elevate especially : to
cause (a portion of the earth’s
surface) to rise above adjacent
areas. 2 : to improve the spiritual,
social, or intellectual condition of.
intransitive verb. : rise. Uplift.
2
What rocks made up uplifted mountains?
- Rocks that make up uplifted mountains
undergo little deformation. Plate-boundary
orogeny rocks are highly folded, faulted,
and metamorphosed. Describe how a fault
block mountain forms. When large pieces of
crust are tilted, uplifted, or dropped between
large normal faults produced by stretching
of the crust.Rocks that make up uplifted
mountains undergo little deformation. Plate-
boundary orogeny rocks are highly folded,
faulted, and metamorphosed. Describe how
a fault block mountain forms. When large
pieces of crust are tilted, uplifted, or
dropped between large normal faults
produced by stretching of the crust.
What is uplift and erosion?
- Isostatic uplift is both a cause and an
effect of erosion. When deformation occurs
in the form of crustal thickening an isostatic
response is induced causing the thickened
crust to sink, and surrounding thinner crust
to uplift. The resulting surface uplift leads to
enhanced elevations, which in turn induces
erosion.
What is uplift in construction?
- wind uplift: The upward-acting pressure
on a roof’s components resulting from wind
traveling across the roof. windward: The
side of the building that’s facing the wind.
What does uplift mean in
manufacturing?
- In the construction industry, the term ‘uplift’
might refer to: Any upward pressure applied
to a structure that has the potential to raise
it relative to its surroundings.
Is tectonic uplift internal or external?
- Internal Heat: melting, heat, pressure, and
fluids, and tectonic uplift.
VIDEO NOTES:
LESSON 1
PLATE TECTONICS & SEA LEVEL CHANGES
Grade 10- Oprahfication | 1st Quarter | Mrs. Joan M. Carpio