PLATE

TECTONICS
LEARNING TARGETS
The learners…
• explain the different theories with regards to earth’s geography
• differentiate oceanic plate and continental plate
• point out in the map the primary plate and secondary plates
• describe the different types of plate boundaries
• shows competence and collaboration in a buzz session activity in
evaluating effect of science on tectonic plates
WHAT IS A TECTONIC PLATE?
Tectonic plates are the major and minor
blocks of rocks that makes up the crust. The
movements on these plates is responsible for the
formation of many landforms.
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
CONTRACTION THEORY
According to Eduard Suess, the Earth cooled
after its formation, its surface contracted and
wrinkled.
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
Eduard Suess, (born Aug. 20, 1831, London, Eng.—died
April 26, 1914, Vienna, Austria), Austrian geologist who helped
lay the basis for paleogeography and tectonics—i.e., the study
of the architecture and evolution of the Earth’s outer rocky shell.

Suess’s Das Antlitz der Erde (1883–1909; The Face of

the Earth), a four-volume treatise on the geologic structure of
the entire planet, discusses his theories of the structure and
evolution of the lithosphere in greater detail, tracing the ancient
changes in the continents and seas necessary to form the
modern features of the Earth’s surface
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY
Alfred Wegener proposed that there once existed
a supercontinent called Pangaea, that later broke into
two smaller continents, Gondwana and Laurasia, that
later on split into our present continents.
It was initially rejected by scientists because
Wegener failed to explain the driving forces behind his
theory
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
Alfred Wegener, in full Alfred Lothar
Wegener, (born November 1, 1880, Berlin,
Germany—died November 1930, Greenland),
German meteorologist and geophysicist who
formulated the first complete statement of
the continental drift hypothesis
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
Wegener became impressed with the
similarity in the coastlines of eastern South
America and western Africa and speculated
that those lands had once been joined together.
In about 1910 he began toying with the idea
that in the late Paleozoic Era (about 250 million
years ago) all the present-day continents had
formed a single large mass, or supercontinent,
which had subsequently broken apart.
Wegener called this
ancient continent Pangaea.
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
SEAFLOOR SPREADING THEORY
American geologist Harry Hess proposed that
the seafloors or ocean floors, not the continents,
move and only carry the latter.
 THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
Harry Hess was a professor of geology at
Princeton University (USA), and became interested
in the geology of the oceans while serving in the
US Navy in World War II. His time as a Navy officer
was an opportunity to use sonar (also called echo
sounding), then a new technology, to map the
ocean floor across the North Pacific.
He published ‘The History of Ocean Basins'
in 1962, in which he outlined a theory that could
explain how the continents could actually drift. This
theory later became known as ‘Sea Floor
Spreading'.
 THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
Hess envisaged that oceans grew from their
centres, with molten material (basalt) oozing up from
the Earth’s mantle along the mid ocean ridges. This
created new seafloor which then spread away from
the ridge in both directions. The ocean ridge was
thermally expanded and consequently higher than the
ocean floor further away. As spreading continued, the
older ocean floor cooled and subsided to the level of
the abyssal plain which is approximately 4 km deep.

Hess believed that ocean trenches were the locations

where ocean floor was destroyed and recycled.
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
PLATE TECTONIC THEORY
Also known as theory of tectonic plates, this
theory incorporates both continental drift and
seafloor spreading theory. For plate tectonics, the
lithosphere is composed of many independent
massive slabs of solid rocks called plates, which
has two types, oceanic and continental plates.
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
The Canadian geophysicist John Tuzo-
Wilson was initially sceptical of the theory of Plate
Tectonics, but eventually became one of its most
famous supporters, proposing two important ideas.

While evidence for Continental Drift was

mounting, the theory still hadn’t explained why
active volcanoes are found many thousands of
kilometres from the nearest plate boundary. In
1963, Tuzo Wilson proposed that plates might
move over fixed ‘hotspots’ in the mantle, forming
volcanic island chains like Hawaii.
THEORIES ON PLATE MOVEMENT
In 1965, he followed this discovery with the
idea of a third type of plate boundary - transform
faults. Also known as a conservative plate
boundaries, these faults slip horizontally,
connecting oceanic ridges (divergent boundaries)
to ocean trenches (convergent boundaries)
Transform faults were regarded as the missing
piece in the puzzle of plate tectonic theory. They
allowed for plates to slide past each other without
any oceanic crust being created or destroyed. The
most famous example is probably the San Andreas
Fault between the North American and Pacific
plates.
There are 15 major tectonic plates, seven are
primary plates and eight are secondary plates.