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Exercise 4 - Discovering Ireland’s Geology – GEOL 20220

Plate tectonics and Ireland’s modern geodynamic setting

Exercise Aims
Plate tectonics is Earth Science’s grand unifying theory that explains many aspects of the large-scale
geological phenomena observed such as earthquakes, volcanoes, the existence of ocean basins,
continents and mountains. Here we will look at a range of data types in Google Earth used to
understand plate tectonics and Ireland’s current setting relative to today’s active plate boundaries.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this exercise you should know:

- the difference between oceanic and continental crust;

- how oceanic crust is formed and destroyed.
- how oceanic crustal age, density and temperature and bathymetry are related;
- the magnetic anomaly patterns related to seafloor spreading;
- the structure and age of the Atlantic ocean and when it opened;
- the different types of plate tectonic boundary and where they are located relative to Ireland;
- where the nearest zones of active volcanism and seismicity are and what they are related to;
- how island-seamount chains provide evidence for mantle hot spots;

What do you need?

Sleeman et al., 2004. Understanding Earth Processes, Rocks and the Geological History of Ireland: a
Companion to the 1:1,000,000 Scale Bedrock Geological Map of Ireland. See pdf here.

Computer with a good internet connection and GoogleEarth installed (if needed download from
here).

GoogleEarth file “GEOL20220_Exercise_4.kmz” (copy to your hard drive)

What to do?
Follow the steps below and give yours answers to questions in the grey answer boxes making these
bigger if you need extra space. Once you have finished, review your work using the worked exercise
sheet (…Qs&Ans.docx).

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PLATE TECTONIC INTRODUCTION

- Read sections 1.2 and Study Box 2.1 on plate tectonics in Sleeman et al. (2004). This gives a very
brief overview of plate tectonics and serves as a good background to this exercise.

PLATE TECTONIC QUIZ

1. How many major plates are there on Earth?

2. What name is given to a plate boundary where crust is made?

3. What is destroyed at a subduction zone?

4. What type of plate boundary runs through California?

5. What plate tectonic event made the Himalaya?

6. What drives plate movement?

In GoogleEarth open “GEOL20220_Exercise_4.kmz”.

You should see the following list of layers under your Places tab.

If you have not used Google Earth a user guide can be found here.

CRUSTAL TYPES

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- Crustal thickness. Turn the CRUST THICKNESS layer on. This shows modelled crustal thickness
from the Earth’s surface to the top of the mantle based on P-wave seismic velocities derived
from seismic refraction data (see here). Where is the thickest crust on the planet and how thick
is it? Where is the thinnest crust? How thick is the crust in Ireland?

ANSWER

The thickest crust on earth is in the Himalayan (Nepal & Bhutan) and the Andes (Peru, Bolivia,
and Chile) which is around 70 km in thickness. The thinnest is in the mid-Atlantic range. Crust
in Ireland is around 20 – 30 km thickness.

- Histogram of crustal thickness. Below shows a histogram of crustal thicknesses for two different
global crustal models from Mooney et al. (1998): how would you describe this probability
distribution? What types of crust are the peaks in this distribution related to?

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ANSWER

Most continent has crust thickness of around 36-44 km. The peak in the distribution related to
continental crust.

- Is Ireland’s crustal thickness relatively thick or thin and what type of crust is it? For reference
the map below shows Ireland’s full territory (demarcated by the red line) whose maritime area is
10 times that of Ireland’s land mass.

Source: https://www.marine.ie/Home/site-area/irelands-marine-resource/real-map-ireland

ANSWER

They are relatively thin. Those are mainly oceanic crust.

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- How does crustal thickness relate to the Earth’s surface topography?

ANSWER

The thicker the crust, the more mountainous or high the area on top of the crust.

CONTINENTAL vs OCEANIC CRUST: We have made a few basic observations about the Earth’s
crust showing us that crust of continents has different properties to that of the oceans.
Continental crust is thicker and lighter than oceanic crust. The majority of crust is composed
of igneous rocks. The oceanic crust is composed of denser, more mafic rocks (darker coloured
magnesium and iron rich), such as basalt, diabase, and gabbro. The continental crust is
instead composed of a higher proportion of less dense, more felsic rocks (lighter coloured
feldspar and quartz rich rocks), notably granite. Globally oceanic crust has an average density
of close to 3.0 kgm -3 whereas continental crust has an average of 2.7 kgm -3. This may not
seem much but makes all the difference in deciding what floats and what is subducted into
the mantle.

ISOSTASY: We have also observed that the thicker the crust the higher the elevation above
sea level; the largest mountains on Earth correspond to areas of the thickest continental
crust. Conversely, oceans occur in lows associated with thin oceanic crust. Why is this?
Essentially we can think of the crust as floating on the mantle rather like ice floats on water.
Over geological time the mantle behaves like a viscous fluid and the upper relatively weak
mantle deforms under the weight of the crust. Obeying the laws of buoyancy, how high the
crust sits is related to both its density and its thickness: the lighter and thicker the crust the
higher it sits. The crust changes its thickness and density through time and the upper mantle
moves allowing the crust to rise or fall to compensate for this. These concepts related to the
gravitational equilibrium between the crust and the mantle are known as isostasy and are
nicely demonstrated in this video.

OCEANIC CRUST AND MID-OCEAN RIDGES

- Now turn on the magnetic anomaly data. This shows local variations in the Earth's magnetic
field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks using data acquired
from a magnetometer on a ship, airplane or satellite. These data have played a pivotal role in the
development of understanding the Earth. What do you notice about the total intensity anomaly
in the northern Atlantic west of Ireland? Does this pattern occur in the other oceans? Do you get
it on the continental crust?

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ANSWER

The total intensity anomaly in the Atlantic Northwest of Ireland has typical pattern or
orientation that is in the form of stripes that separate between area with high total intensity
anomaly and area with low total intensity anomaly. It occurs in any other oceans, but doesn’t
occur in continental crust.

- Adjust the opacity using the slide to compare the magnetic anomaly to the bathymetry. What
bathymetric features does the patterns in magnetic anomaly align to?

Opacity Slide highlighted

ANSWER

The magnetic anomaly aligns to the rift valley.

- Below is one of the first maps of seafloor magnetic anomalies on either side of the Atlantic
Ridge (the Reykjanes Ridge), south of Iceland (adapted from Hiertzler et al., 1966). How many
continuous positive anomalies (black stripes) are there? Is the pattern of stripes the same on
either side of the ridge? How could this magnetic pattern form do you think?

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ANSWER

There 6 positive anomalies. Yes, they are the same amount in total. The magnetic patterns
formed due to the energy from the center of the ridge.

- Now turn on the crustal age data – this may take a few seconds to load. This shows the ages of
the crust based on radiometric dating and magnetic anomaly data. How old is the oceanic crust
compared to the continental crust?

ANSWER

Oceanic crust is much younger than the continental crust.

- Oceanic crust age distribution pattern: What is the age distribution pattern of oceanic crust in
the Atlantic? Where is the youngest crust and where is the oldest? Is this similar in other oceans?

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ANSWER

The center of Atlantic (the ridge) has the youngest crush, and the farther the crust from the
ridge, the older the crust. Mediterranean Sea has the oldest crust while in the center of many
oceans (e.g. pacific & Atlantic) has the youngest crust.

- Make an elevation profile across the North Atlantic. To do this select “Add Path” and make a
transect. Then select the new path in the list and with a right mouse click select “Show Elevation
Profile”.

Left: Add Path tool highlighted. Right: Show Elevation Profile tool.

How does the bathymetry vary across the North Atlantic away from the mid-ocean ridge? How does
this correspond to the crustal age?

ANSWER

and the farther the crust from the ridge, the older the crust

- Take a look at the heat flow map. Heat flow here is the amount of heat transferred per unit
time through the crust. How is seafloor age and heat flow related?

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ANSWER

The center of heat flow is located in the ridge. The younger crusts have more heat flow.

- Formation of oceanic crust. What does the age distribution pattern and heat flow suggest
about the manner in which oceanic crust is formed? What could cause the bathymetric pattern
and why is it related to crustal age?

ANSWER

Oceanic crust is formed because of the opened up at the ridge

OCEANIC CRUSTAL AGE

- The Atlantic Ocean has not always existed but has opened up over many millions of years.
Looking at the crustal ages again, at what location do you think the Atlantic started to open and
why? What is the most recent part of the Atlantic Ocean?

ANSWER

It started to open in the Iceland and Greenland. The most recent part that opened was mid-
Atlantic ridge.

- Before the North Atlantic opened Ireland used to be attached to Greenland. When did Ireland
break away from North America and from Greenland?

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ANSWER

450 million years ago

- The Bay of Biscay. When did the Bay of Biscay to the south of Ireland start opening and is it still
spreading?

ANSWER

252-201 million years ago, and yes, it is still spreading

- The oldest oceanic crust. Can you find the oldest oceanic crust in the world? Where is it and how
does its age compare to that of the continental crust? Why do you think there is no oceanic crust
older than this?

ANSWER

The oldest oceanic crust is in the Mediterranean Sea. It is because Mediterranean sea is in the
middle between to large continental crust.

TRANSFORM FAULTS

- Take a look at the bathymetry and crustal age data in the north Atlantic. What east-west
trending features can be seen and what do they offset? What is the relative direction of
movement of the crust?
ANSWER

Divergent

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- Turn on the “Tectonic Boundaries” in the CRUST AGE layer. What type of plate boundary do we
see associated with these east-west features?

ANSWER

Divergent

- Now zoom out so you can see Ireland and Spain. Where is the boundary between the European
Plate and the African Plate and what tectonic boundaries define this?

ANSWER

Morocco

EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES

- Turn on the earthquake and volcano data. Note you can click on these data to find out about
individual volcanoes and earthquakes. Where are the nearest volcanoes to Ireland and what are
they related to? Where are the nearest zones of major earthquakes (>5 ML) and what are these
related to? Why do you think there are no major volcanoes or earthquakes in Ireland?

ANSWER

Oraefajokull. Iceland. There are no such things in Ireland because it is not situated near plate
boundaries.

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- Earthquake depths. At what depths are the epicentres of most earthquakes in the Atlantic and
Europe?

ANSWER

0 – 33 km.

- Compare the Atlantic to the Pacific. What is different in terms of the distribution of volcanoes
and earthquakes? Why do you think this might be?

ANSWER

Because of the ring of fire. This is due to the movement of earth's lithosphere. The Pacific plate
moves faster than the ones in the Atlantic basin.

SUBDUCTION ZONES

- Now take a look at the Pacific margin of South America and make an east-west profile from
mid-ocean ridge to the eastern side of the Andes. How does this bathymetric profile compare to
that of the Atlantic? What bathymetric feature is adjacent to the Andes?

ANSWER

Convergent. Cascadia Trench.

- Earthquake depths: What are the depths of the earthquakes on the South American Pacific
margin? Is there a systematic trend in earthquake depths?

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ANSWER

0-70 km in the Pacific margin. Yes, there are systematic trend.

- What is causing this pattern of earthquakes at the South American plate margin? What do you
think is causing the formation of the Andes mountain chain?

ANSWER

Because of the trench.

HOTSPOTS

- Go to the Hawaii in the Pacific and zoom out a little so you can see the whole northwest
Pacific. Is this a single Island or many? What do you notice about the pattern of islands and
underwater seamounts?

ANSWER

Many islands.

- Age data for the islands and seamounts is given in HOTSPOTS layer. Which is the youngest
island and in which direction do they become older? Are these ages the same as the surrounding
oceanic crust?

ANSWER

East-west. No, it is younger.

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- Formation of Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain: What do you think could explain these age
relationships? Why is there a change in direction of the island-seamount chain?

ANSWER

The islands. Because of the hot spot

- Hotspots in the North Atlantic: There are a number of hotspots near Ireland in the north
Atlantic forming islands and responsible for volcanism – where do you think they might be?

ANSWER

From the mid-Atlantic ridge

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