3.

Plate Tectonics

Dr. R.L. Taylor, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester

A virtual fieldtrip designed to take the user around

some key localities on Earth that relate directly to
course material.

Work through each locality in order, clicking on the

figures to view larger images and the captions. It is
possible to rotate, zoom and, in some localities, even
enter Street View.

Click on the highlighted text (hyperlink) to be redirected towards supplementary pages for further
information.

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3. Plate Tectonics
There is a homework exercise associated with this tour (Homework exercise #2).
This tour begins with the history of plate tectonics and how it developed, under much scepticism, from
the theory of continental drift. Divergent (Mid-Atlantic Ridge) and continent-continent convergent
(Himalayan Mountain Range) boundaries are explored in this section. Case study examples of
convergent and transform boundaries are given in the following subsections to this tour.
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The position of the plate boundaries have been placed onto the Google Earth globe (opposite).
Navigate around the globe to see how the plates interact with one another and where the plate
boundaries are.

Can you identify any triple junctions (where 3 or more plates intersect), and what impact do you think
this will have on the tectonic activity in the region?

Why do you think the UK experiences very few and generally very weak earthquakes?
PLATE BOUNDARIES

This animation shows how the continents have been drifting over 600 million years, projected onto a 3D globe
viewed at the Prime Meridian. The texture of the globe was made from images provided by Ron Blakey, who
has licensed his work under the CCA 3.0. Image Source: Kurzon [CC BY-SA 3.0]. ANIMATION AVAILABLE.

The development of the theory of plate tectonics is one of the most significant advances in geoscience
in the past 100 years. It is built upon the foundations of continental drift developed during the early
20th century (figure 1). First proposed by Abraham Ortelius as early as 1596, it was Alfred Wegner
who developed the concept in 1912. However, it was initially rejected on the grounds that there was no
mechanism to explain the concept. By the late 1950s to early 1960s, Wegner’s ideas were eventually
accepted after the development of seafloor spreading as a mechanism to explain continental drift. It
was from here that the scientific theory of plate tectonics was born. The theory provides a framework
for understanding a wide range of geological processes from mountain building to formation of
sedimentary basins, and the origin of a range of economic resources.
The lithosphere is made up of the crust and upper mantle and is split up into 15 main segments, or
plates. In order of size, starting with the largest these are:

1. Pacific; 2. North American; 3. Eurasian; 4. African; 5. Antarctic; 6. Australian; 7. South American;

8. Nazca; 9. Indian; 10. Philippine; 11. Arabian; 12. Caribbean; 13. Cocos; 14. Scotia; 15. Juan de
Fuca.

In addition to these over 35 “microplates” have been identified to date. There are three types of plate
boundaries:

1. Transform boundaries (conservative) – crustal

material is neither created nor destroyed. Plates grind
past each other along transform faults (e.g. San
Andreas Fault, California, USA). Strong earthquakes
can occur along the fault as the plates try to move
past each other and stick under the force of
friction. Once the friction is overcome, the elastic
energy stored in the rocks is violently released. The
relative motion of the two plates is either sinistral
(opposing plate is moving towards the left) or dextral
(opposing plate is moving towards the right).
2. Divergent boundaries (constructive) – plates
are moving away from each other. Rifting of the
oceanic lithosphere (e.g. Mid-Atlantic Ridge)
creates a space that is filled with new crustal
material from rising magma via a process known as
seafloor spreading. Along continental rifts (e.g.
East African Rift Valley), magmatic activity
increases in the early stages and grabens are often
formed. Continental rift sites are often significant
for oil and gas accumulations as source rocks often
develop within the syn-rift fill and reservoir rocks
tend to develop at all stages of the rifting sequence. Over time, continental rifting splits a continent in
two and the space is inundated with water. For example, the Atlantic Ocean formed when the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge split what is now the European and North American landmasses.

3. Convergent boundaries (destructive) – plates

are moving towards each other to form either a
subduction zone (if an oceanic plate sinks below a
continental plate or another oceanic plate) or a
continental collision. At zones of subduction, the
denser plate sinks below the less dense (e.g.
Cascade Mountains in western USA – continental-
to-oceanic and Java Trench – oceanic-to-
oceanic). In the case of oceanic-to-oceanic the
older, cooler oceanic plate is denser. Deep trenches
are typically associated with subducting plates and
earthquakes track the path of the subducting plate
(e.g. Marianas Trench, Japan). The magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake and tsunami off the
Pacific coast of Tōhoku, Japan in 2011 occurred along a destructive plate boundary. Continental
collision (e.g. Himalayas and Alps) can result in the closure of oceanic basins. Collision between
masses of continental lithosphere results in plate edges being compressed, uplifted and folded.

Examples of divergent and continent-continent convergent boundaries are explored in this section.
Transform boundaries and oceanic-continent convergent boundaries are explored in greater detail in
subsequent sections.
DIVERGENT BOUNDARIES: Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland

Coordinates: 64°36'16"N 17°31'19"W

Iceland is the only place on Earth where one

can go and actually stand on the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge! It was formed over a period of 24
million years from volcanic eruptions
originating from hotspot volcanoes. The
hotspot is presently situated
beneath Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest glacier.

The ridge separates the Eurasian

and American plates (zoom out to
see the location of the plate
boundaries), which are moving
away from one another at an
average spreading rate of 2.5 cm
per year (about as quickly as your
fingernails grow).

Mid-Atlantic Ridge outcropping in Iceland.

Image Source: David Gelsthorpe, University of Manchester Museum.

In August 2014, seismic activity at Vatnajökull increased, and magma was detected 3–7 km below the
surface at the Bárðarbunga volcano beneath the Dyngjujökull glacier. The largest earthquakes
recorded magnitudes of 5.3 and 5.1 but most did not exceed 3.0. The 2010 eruption of the nearby
Eyjafjallajökull volcano disrupted aviation in the Northern Hemisphere for six days, grounding
100,000 flights and costing the aviation industry $1.7 billion. Such was the disruption from the
volcanic ash cloud that there is now a Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in London run by the
Met Office that provides regular forecasts about the levels of volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES: The Himalaya Mountains, Asia

Coordinates: 27°59'07"N 86°55'33"E

The Himalayan mountain have 9 of the top 10 of the world's highest peaks.

1. Everest - 8848 m; 2. K2 - 8611 m (part of the

Karakoram range); 3. Kangchenjunga - 8586
m; 4. Lhotse - 8516 m; 5. Makula - 8463 m; 6.
Cho Oyu - 8201 m; 7. Dhaulagiri I - 8167 m; 8.
Mansula - 8156 m; 9. Nanga Parbat - 8126 m;
10. Anapurna I - 8091 m

The Himalayan range stretches in an arc 2400 km (1500 mi) long across Pakistan, China, India, Nepal
and Bhutan and is bordered by the Karakoram and Hindu-Kush ranges in the NW, the Indo-Gangetic
Plain in the south, and the Tibetan Plateau in the north. The Indus and Ganges rivers run through the
Himalayas.

The Himalayan mountain belt began to form 40–50 Ma

when the Indian sub-continent crashed into the
Eurasian continental landmass via the subduction of the
Tethys Ocean. Because the two landmasses were of
approximately the same density, neither could be
subducted. Thus, when the two landmasses came into
contact with one another (i.e. after the subduction of
the Tethys oceanic plates), the pressure of the two
colliding continental plates could only be relieved by
the thrusting upwards of the two plates to form the
Himalayas. The remnant fragments of ophiolites are
found in the mountain ranges and marine limestone is
found on the peak of Everest, evidence that an ocean
once split the two landmasses.

Migration of the Indian landmass over 71 million years. About 10 million

years ago it crashed into the Eurasian subcontinent and continues to be
pushed northwards today. Since the collision is between two continental
lithospheric plates neither subducts so the rocks become pushed against
one another, buckling and uplifting to form the Himalayan mountain belt.
This process is known as orogenic uplift. Image Source: USGS.
Fifty kilometers north of Lhasa (Tibet's capital city) sandstones containing magnetic minerals
(magnetite Fe 3 O 4 ) were found. When magnetic minerals are formed they 'record' the magnetic field at
the position on the Earth's surface at which they were formed. If they then move due to motions of
plate tectonics, scientists can work out their palaeolatitudes. These minerals are evidence that the
Indian landmass was at a latitude of 20°S when they formed about 55 Ma. India now sits at 27°N.

Suggested Reading and Useful Links

WEBSITES
Divergent margins: Mid-Atlantic Ridge - Oceanic divergent margin (The Geological Society,
London)
Divergent margins: Triple Junction - Continental divergent margin (The Geological Society, London)
After Major Nepal Earthquake, Himalayas Drop Several Feet - Popular Science news article
Taking a Comprehensive View of Earthquakes - The HIndu news article

GLOSSARY
Hotspot volcanoes
Vatnajökull
3A. Convergent Boundaries: Mt St Helens

This is the first subsection to 3. Plate Tectonics.

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The famous 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens was particularly catastrophic. In this tour we look at the
eruption and its effect on the surrounding landscape.

CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES: Cascadia Subduction Zone

At convergent boundaries, dense oceanic crust sinks into the mantle below the lighter continental crust
via a process known as subduction (at the Cascadia Subduction Zone it is the Juan de Fuca plate
sinking beneath the North America plate).

The subducting material is usually rich in hydrous (water-rich) minerals and clays. The breakdown of
these minerals produces large quantities of water. At the high pressures and temperatures experienced
in the mantle the water acts as a supercritical fluid (i.e. in a state between liquid and gas). The
supercritical fluid is hot and more buoyant than the surrounding rock, allowing it to rise into the
overlying mantle and lower the pressure (thus the melting temperature) of the mantle rock, producing
magma.

Magma is less dense than the surrounding rock so it rises to the surface under pressure. Once sufficient
pressure has built up behind the magma, the material can break through the surface and an eruption
occurs. This process is repeated along the length of the subducting slab forming a chain of volcanoes,
such as the Cascade Range.

The dense oceanic Juan de Fuca plate subducts beneath

the cooler continental North American plate. As the
oceanic plate melts under intense heat and pressure
experienced in the mantle the melt rises to the surface
through conduits, producing a chain of volcanoes along
the continental boundary.
Mt St Helens
Coordinates: 46°11'28"N 122°11'40"W

Mount St Helens is a stratovolocano and

part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a portion
of the Pacific Ring of Fire with >160 active
volcanoes.

A stratovolcano is a conical volcano made up of many

layers of ash, pumice, tephra and lava. As the layers of the
volcano build the sides steepen.

A catastrophic eruption on May 18.

1980 at 8:32 am PDT (click on this
link to watch a video of the eruption)
killed 57 people and destroyed 250
homes, 47 bridges, 24 km of
railways and 298 km of
highways. The eruption also
removed the entire top of the
mountain (compare figure with
current Google Earth image).
Image of Mt St Helens taken 1 day prior to the 1980 eruption. Notice
the bulge on the northern flank of the volcano (image looking west)
Image Source: USGS.
 A two-month period of earthquakes
preceded the eruption. The
earthquakes were the response of
magma just beneath the surface
beginning to rise. Previous eruptions
had blocked the top of the volcano,
preventing newly-formed magma
easy passage. The magma exploited a
fracture system on the mountain’s
north slope, causing the volcano to
bulge. USGS scientists monitored the
growing bulge prior to the
eruption. They convinced local
authorities to keep the park closed to
the general public, saving thousands
of lives.

Mt St Helens eruption sequence: S) summit dome, C) cryptodome, G) goat rocks dome, L) landslide blocks, E)
initial explosions, V) vertical eruption column. Image Source: Johann Dréo (CC-BY-SA-3.0).
Lateral Blast and Lahars (Mudflows)

The eruption column rose 24 km into the

atmosphere and deposited ash in 11 U.S states.

Thick layers of ash travelled short distances

around the flanks of the volcano. Finer ash
particles were carried by the wind over 11 states
and as far south-east as Oklahoma.

On the morning of the eruption an

earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter
scale weakened the north face of the
volcano triggering a massive debris
avalanche that travelled at speeds of 180
to 249 km/h and covered an area of 62
km2 and a volume of 2.9 km3. The
avalanche exposed high pressure
partially-molten gas- and steam-rich
rock in the volcano to lower pressures
Car caught up in the ashflow 16 km from the volcano. Image Source:
causing the mixture to explode.
USGS.

The force of the lateral blast was so fierce that it overtook the avalanching north face. Pulverised rock
hugged the ground, initially moving at 650 km/h but accelerating quickly to 1,080 km/h.

The lateral blast reached as far as 31 km from

the site of the volcano because it was able to
travel along valleys that acted as channels.
The direct blast reached radial distances of
about 13 km. Melting of nearly all the
mountains glaciers and overlying snow
created huge lahars (volcanic mudflows) that
travelled as fast as 140 km/h on the flanks of
the volcano and 4.8 km/h on flatter ground.

Muddy ashflows (lahars) carry debris from the surrounding forests. These flows can travel at speeds from a few km/h
to speeds in excess of 140 km/hr and can destroy anything in its path. Image Source: USGS.
Spirit Lake and Recovering Ecology

A Google Earth screenshot (looking south) labelling some of the key features of Mount St Helens after the May 1980
eruption.

Spirit Lake, at the foot of the volcano, received the full force of the lateral blast and is filled with
debris from the 1980 eruption. After the eruption the lake became anoxic (oxygen-poor) due to
volcanic gases seeping from the lake bed but life quickly recolonised. Phytoplankton started to re-
emerge as early as 1983 and begin to restore oxygen levels, which in turn has brought flora and fauna
back to the once desolate volcano.

The following photographs show (1) the lake immediately after the eruption, (2) 2 years after the
eruption, and (3) in August 2005.
Spirit Lake, Pumice Plain, and phreatic
explosions, soon after the May 18, 1980 eruption
of Mount St. Helens.

Image Source: USGS.

The photo of Spirit Lake was taken two years

after the eruption and shows the lake filled with
debris from the eruption.

Image Source: US Army Corps of Engineers.

Spirit Lake - August 200.

Image Source: Greg Willis from Denver, CO,

USA via Wikimedia Commons
 Suggested Reading and Useful Links

WEBSITES
Video of May 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens
History of Mt St Helens - detailing historical eruptions and the catastrophic May 1980 eruption.
Landslide and Return of Life - short (2:51) video describing the remarkable recovery of the ecosystem
surrounding Mt St Helens post-1980 eruption.
3B. Transform Boundaries: San Andreas Fault, CA

This is the second subsection to 3. Plate Tectonics.

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The San Andreas fault is an onshore transform boundary. Transform boundaries usually occur in
marine setting so when they occur on land they are particularly well studied. This tour presents an
introduction to different types of faults and how they are identified and described. The tour also looks
at the 3 different section of the San Andreas fault, and what types of earthquakes they produce.

Faults

Types of fault movement. Modified from Taylor, 2013 (PhD Thesis).

A fault is a planar crack in the earth’s surface along which some slippage can occur. Faults can be
microscopic or extremely large. The largest faults occur along the edges of tectonic plates.

Faults are classified according to the direction that the rocks on either side move and whether rocks
move laterally or vertically. Figure 1 shows the main types of fault based on these classifications.

• Strike-slip or transform faults – when the motion is dominantly horizontal.

• Dip-slip faults – when the motion is dominantly vertical.

Where two plates touch each other they become stuck. As the rest of the plate moves, friction (stress)
builds up between the two surfaces. When a critical stress is reached, the rock breaks or slips and the
plates move violently. The plates snap back (rebound) into their original state. This is elastic
deformation (i.e. non-permanent) and is explained by the elastic rebound hypothesis. The release of
this elastic energy stored in the rocks produces seismic waves that travel through the ground. The
shaking that these waves generate is known as earthquakes and the magnitude (strength) of the
earthquake is dependent on the amount of stress that builds up, hence the amount of energy that is
released.
 Another type of fault classification is a
transform (rocks slide past each other)
fault. Transform boundaries commonly
occur on the ocean floor, offsetting
active spreading ridges. These produce
zig–zag plate margins and are
generally characterised by shallow
earthquakes.

Transform boundary showing the 2 plates moving away from spreading centres. The transform fault forms the boundary
between the 2 plates such that a simple strike-slip offset may occur (red arrows) or the 2 sides of the fault may be moving
in the same direction but at different speeds (blue arrows) Watch the following animation to see how transform faults are
formed...

TRANSFORM FAULT ANIMATION AVAILABLE

Occasionally, transform boundaries occur on land, such as the San Andreas fault, CA and the Alpine
fault, New Zealand. Transform faults are different to strike-slip faults because they are formed when
two plates are each moving away from a divergent (spreading) centre such that the 2 sides of the fault
may be moving in opposite directions (figure 2, red arrows) or in the same direction (figure 2, blue
arrows) depending on the position along the fault.
San Andreas Fault

Coordinates: 39°00'26"N 123°41'16"W to 33°27'38"N 115°58'33"W

A few transform boundaries occur on land. The San Andreas Fault is incredibly important to
geologists because it is a plate boundary that is on land – a 1300 km long continental transform fault,
but it is not widely visible at the surface due to sediment cover. Usually plate boundaries are found
deep within the ocean so are hard to study. The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) has
been an incredibly expensive ($25 million) research programme designed to sample rocks from deep
inside an active fault.

Examples of other continental transform faults include:

• Dead Sea Transform fault in the Middle East

• New Zealand’s Alpine Fault
• Pakistan’s Chaman Fault
• Turkey’s North Anatolian Fault
• North America’s Queen Charlotte Fault

The San Andreas fault, California is located on the Pacific coast of the United States and links the East
Pacific Rise to the Mendocino Triple Junction (part of the Juan de Fuca plate), extending to the Salton
Sea over more than 1200 km. Here, the Pacific Plate is moving northwest relative to the North
American Plate at an average rate exceeding 60 mm per year (60 km in 1 million years). If the plates
continue to move at the same rate, in just 10 million years Los Angles will be as far north as San
Francisco is today. To date, total displacement along the fault is thought to be >550 km.

The San Andreas fault zone, a strike-slip fault system (two plates sliding past one another), originated
about 30-40 Ma during the Oligocene. The fault consists of a zone of braided fault traces but the
relative movement sense is dextral (right lateral). The fault is shallow (6-16 km deep) so earthquakes
produced by the fault are more destructive at the surface than faults that originate deeper within the
earth’s crust.
 It is made up of 3 principle segments:
a northern segment, a southern
segment, and a creeping segment.

The fault is divided into three segments. The middle, creeping, segment is persistently moving.

Northern Segment

The northern section of the San Andreas fault runs from Hollister in the south to Shelter Cove in the
north and eventually offshore.

The section is about 300 km long and is described as

“locked”. In the ductile zone faults can stretch so that
most tectonic stress is released. In the brittle zone,
when two sides of a fault are locked together yet still
trying to slide past one another stress builds up as the
rocks are elastically deformed. Earthquakes occur
when the elastic strain that has built up is suddenly,
and often violently, released. The sudden release of
energy produces moderate to large earthquakes, i.e.
San Francisco, 1906 (M7.8); Loma Prieta, 1989
(M7.1). Once the strain has been released the rocks
snap back to their unstrained state. Faults also become
locked when the pressure of the overburden (rocks
lying on top of the fault) is high. This is called the
lithostatic pressure.
Image Source: USGS
Creeping Segment

The creeping section of the San Andreas fault is 150 km

long. Fault creep is a slow but constant slippage on fault
surfaces (also called aseismic creep). It happens close to the
surface where lithostatic pressure is low. The creeping
section is continually, but slowly, moving (~3 cm yr-1) so
that large strains do not build, thereby producing only minor
earthquakes. In fact, no large earthquakes have ever been
recorded in the creeping section of the San Andreas fault and
this is unusual.

In the area around Parkfield the fault

is weak enough that it slides
continuously rather than in jerky
movements. Here the SAFOD
borehole has revealed that weak
clays (i.e. magnesium-rich saponite
that readily traps pore water and
reduces friction; Lockner et al. 2011)
or serpentinite may be lubricating the
fault, reducing both the number and
size of locked zones.
Southern Segment

The southern segment of the San Andreas Fault

extends from between Parkfield and Bakersfield to
the Salton Sea (over 100 km southeast from Palm
Springs), where mud volcanoes are formed.

The section is 300 km long and is considered stable: it

has not ruptured since before 1700. However, the
fault bends abruptly 100 km miles northwest of Los
Angeles towards the east. The fault follows this
course for approximately 10 km before resuming its
original southeast heading. It is at this point that fault
also interacts with the east-west trending Garlock
fault. This region is known as the “big bend”.

For most of the San Andreas fault the movement of the two plates are roughly parallel to the fault so
that the two sides of the fault slide past one another. However, in the region of the big bend, where the
trace of the fault shifts towards the east, the two plates push into one another causing a zone of
compression, creating many small faults. These faults produce thousands of minor earthquakes per
year.
 Suggested Reading and Useful Links

WEBSITES
Forecasting California’s Earthquakes—What Can We Expect in the Next 30 Years? - USGS article
The San Andreas Fault - USGS article
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Lockner, D.A., Morrow, C., Moore, D., Hickman, S. 2011. Low strength of deep San Andreas fault
gouge from SAFOD core. Nature 472, 82-85 doi:10.1038/nature09927