The Structure of the Earth

and Plate Tectonics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zocutif0cQY
What is Plate Tectonics?
Start of 20th century, Raisin Theory
explained the physical attributes of
Earth

Earth is like a grape contracted into a raisin

due to the cooling process occurred on earth
after Big Bang Theory 13.77 B yrs ago.
Cooling caused contraction and pressure
made crust to move upward and formed
mountains while others buckled downward
creating ocean basins and depressions
Tectonic derived from
Greek word tekton meaning
carpenter or builder
Clarence Edward
Dutton-American
seismologist and
geologist, proposed
Theory of Isostasy
Theory of Isostasy- whenever
equilibrium exists on earth’s
surface, equal mass must
underlie equal surface area, a
great continental mass must be
formed of lighter materials than
that supposed to constitute the
ocean floor.
 What is Plate Tectonics?
• In the early 1900, Alfred Wegener
proposed the theory of continental
drift
– All the continents had once been
connected in one, massive super-
continent and for some reason had split
and drifted apart
– This super-continent was called Pangea
 What is Plate Tectonics?
•Plate tectonics is a theory that describes plate
movement and how if affects Earth’s geologic
features.
model builds on the concept of continental
drift which was developed during the first few
decades of the 20th century.
plate-tectonic theory was accepted after seafloor
spreading was validated in the late 1950s and early
1960s.
• If you look at a map of the world, you may notice that some of
the continents could fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
 Plate Tectonics
• The Earth’s crust is divided into 12 major plates
which are moved in various directions.
• This plate motion causes them to collide, pull
apart, or scrape against each other.
• Each type of interaction causes a characteristic
set of Earth structures or “tectonic” features.
• The word, tectonic, refers to the deformation of
the crust as a consequence of plate interaction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL7LX5-ytOg
 Major Tectonic Plates

Eurasian
African
Indo-Australian
Pacific
North-American
South American
Antartic
 Minor Tectonic Plates

Philippine
Nazca
Arabian
Caribbean
Juan De Fuca
What are tectonic plates made of?

• Plates are
made of rigid
lithosphere.
The lithosphere is
made up of the
crust and the upper
part of the mantle.
What lies beneath the tectonic plates?

• Below the
lithosphere
(which makes
up the tectonic
plates) is the
asthenosphere.
 Plate Movement
• “Plates” of lithosphere are moved around by
the underlying hot mantle convection cells