Plate Tectonics Overview

1. Plate Tectonics Overview

2. What are plates? • Rigid, moving sections of the lithosphere (land) that float on the Asthenosphere

4. Major tectonic process • There are three main tectonic process • Folding • Faulting • Vulcanism

5. Folding • When rock layers compress under great stress they form folds. • Easily seen where roads have been made into hillsides.

6. Faulting • Four types of faults • Normal: upward movement of one side of the fault line • Reverse: when one block moves upwards against another • Strike-Slip: where two sections of rock move horizontally past each other • Fault Scarps: created by normal or reverse faulting using in a straights or continuous line across landscape for a considerable amount of distance

8. Vulcanism • Associated with violent volcanic actvity. • Caused by convergent and subduction zones.

10. Types of Plate boundaries • Three main types: • Diverging • Transform fault • Converging

12. Plate movement and they results • Diverging: volcanic or faulting process • Transform fault: faulting process (earthquake) • Converging: folding, faulting, and volcanic processes • Violent and destructive

14. Other Plate Tectonic Facts • Plate interiors are relatively free from tectonic activities (are not impacted)

15. Other plate tectonic facts • The world’s continents were once part of a supercontinent, which broke up 200 million years ago.