ppt课件-envi21lifeintheocean-universityofsandiego.pptVIP

Geology Plate Tectonics Mid-Ocean Ridge System Discovered from sea floor mapping with SONAR during and after World War II Largest geological feature on Earth Ridges displaced in some areas by transform faults Trenches Conspicuous sea floor features Especially common in the Pacific Ocean Geology Plate Tectonics - Evidence “Ring of Fire” Geological activity (e.g. earthquakes, volcanoes) associated with mid-ocean ridges and with trenches Geology Plate Tectonics - Evidence “Ring of Fire” Geological activity (e.g. earthquakes, volcanoes) associated with mid-ocean ridges and with trenches Closer to ridges Younger rock Thinner covering of sediment Magnetic anomalies Caused by magnetic field reversals Symmetrical on either side of ridge axis Geology Plate Tectonics - Mechanism Sea-Floor Spreading Mid-ocean ridges contain rifts where two pieces of crust are moving apart and new oceanic crust is being created (spreading rate ca. 2-18 cm y-1) As rift widens, hot mantle material rises through rift, cools and solidifies to form new oceanic crust Ridges = spreading centers Theory generated by induction explains observations Younger rock closer to ridges Thinner sediment closer to ridges Patterns of magnetic anomalies Geology Plate Tectonics - Mechanism Sea-Floor Spreading Lithosphere made up of lithospheric plates Plates may contain continental crust, oceanic crust, or both Plates rest on asthenosphere (plastic upper mantle) Plate boundaries correspond to locations of mid-ocean ridges and to trenches Not all plates completely characterized yet Geology Plate Tectonics - Mechanism Subduction Old crust destroyed when one plate dips below another Oldest oceanic crust ~200 million years old Denser plate subducted beneath less dense plate Locations – oceanic trenches = subduction zones Recycles crust and supports volcanic activity May result from collisions between Continental plate and oceanic plate (oceanic plate subducted; usually forms volcanoes) Two oceanic plates (denser pl