Introduction to Plate Tectonics with Google Earth

Introduction to Plate Tectonics with Google Earth

introduction

The unifying framework used for comprehending the Earth’s dynamic geology is termed as plate tectonics. The proposition suggests that the upper mantle and the crust comprise the Earth’s brittle lithosphere which is divided into several thin plates. And these plates move to the middle mantle or the upper part of the asthenosphere which even though is a solid, still flow plastically over geologic time scale. Most of the tectonic actions such as volcanoes or earthquakes often happen where plates come in contact either at convergent, transform or divergent boundaries because plates interiors are substantially stable. Therefore, the following report elaborates on plate tectonics using Google Earth of topographic patterns, seismic patterns, volcano patterns, plate boundaries, and plate motion.

Topography above and below sea level

In order to significantly comprehend the plate tectonics of topographic pattern, it is vital to understand if mountains are distributed randomly all over the Earth, or they follow a particular design such as linear chains, arcs or even clusters. Although the mountain occurs randomly upon the separate continents, they are distributed in arcs within the continents (Harvey, Burbank, & Bookhagen, 2015). This happens because they follow the subduction zone trench line that produces the mountains. Using Mt. Everest which is the highest point on Earth as an illustration, when one zooms so that the mountain’s summit is visible, the mountain has an elevation of 8,840 meters or 29,002 feet.

Consequently, understanding the topography below sea levels require significant examination of the Atlantic Ocean nestled between North/South America and Eurasia/Africa. It is also essential to know that the most profound part isn’t the centre; rather, a submerged mountain run runs down the centre of the sea. The shore of South America leads to the Atlantic Ocean, which ends at the coast of Africa, creating features called mid-ocean ridges or spreading ridges(Harvey, Burbank, & Bookhagen, 2015). In spite of the fact that the pinnacle is a topographic high, it likewise has a valley (the “break valley”) running along its centre. The delineation beneath shows the topographic profile of the Atlantic Ocean floor between South America and Africa.

After scanning around the sea edges in the Indiana, Pacific and Southern Ocean, one can conclude that the Pacific Ocean leads up to the South American shoreline. The most minimal parts of the Earth are not located in the ocean’s centre as its lowest spots occur in ocean trenches. And by developing an immense focus on the West Coast of South America, the following illustration demonstrates the topographic profile of the Pacific Ocean floor from South America westward about 600 miles (1000 km). With the aid of a Google Earth to locate the Earth’s deepest part, Challenger Deep is in the Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench near the Mariana Islands which are near Guam, and it reaches 11 km below sea level which is equal to thirty-six thousand feet or 11,000 meters.

Despite that above sea Mt. Everest’s inclination might seem to be higher than the Challenger Deep depth below sea level, but with 2160 meters, Challenger Deep is higher than the elevation. The locations of three other ocean trenches on Earth are: The Kuril Trench is located near Russia in the Pacific Ocean,  the New Britain Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean near Guinea, and the Bonin Trench is also located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan (Harvey, Burbank, & Bookhagen, 2015).

Seismic Patterns

.Earthquakes can only occur in rocks where stresses can build up to a point to cause the material to fracture, sending seismic waves through the Earth deeper in the Earth the temperatures are too high, making the rocks to flow, rather than fracture so in the real sense we can conclude that the earthquake forms clusters. The shallowest earthquakes are blue.  The deepest earthquakes are red (Varga et al. 2012). The earthquake depth patterns associated with these features are different when one takes a close look around the trenches and the ridges of the Earth. The Earth’s lithosphere is thicker in the vicinity of the channels because the crust and older.  The build-up strain causes more earthquakes.

Volcano Patterns

A fountain of liquid magma is an opening in the surface of the Earth via which the magma or molten stone, gases as well as volcanic debris emerge from the Earth’s internal parts. Most of the active volcanoes are located relatively close to the locations of earthquakes (Parham et al. 2010).  Active volcanoes are overwhelmingly located along fault zones and plate boundaries.

Plate Boundaries

The plate boundary relative to the coastlines of Africa and South America is between the two continents. However, one can still locate and determine the periphery of the plate even without the aid of plate boundary layer by analyzing the adjustment inside and out the volcanic ejections and the place where the mountains are situated. Relative to South America, the Nazca plate boundary follows the South America coastline (Torsvik et al. 2010). If the plate boundary layer was unavailable, other methods are available to determine plate boundary.  In the instance of the Nazca plate, following the South American coastline provides the plate boundary.  Also, tracing the occurrences of volcanoes and earthquakes would give the plate boundary.

Plate Motion

Focusing on the Atlantic Ocean to explore the movement from the plate of Africa to that of  South America and across the ridge of the mid-Atlantic ridge, one can note that the spreading ridges are in parallel motion with the age bands (Boyden et al. .2011). Ocean bottom age is an essential bit of proof for plate tectonics; they are utilized to recreate how sea bowls have created after some time and foresee how they may develop later on. Each coloured band represents 10 million years. On average, continental crust is 2 billion years old; the oldest rocks are 3.8 billion years old, and some of the grains in those rocks are even older.

However, the oldest seafloor is 10 million years, and the continents are older than the ocean basins. As the distance increases away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the age of the seafloor gets older as the length grows away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Boyden et al. .2011). The crust is creating new ocean floor as it spreads at this divergent plate boundary. Based on the ages of the oldest rock on the Atlantic Ocean floor, the northern Atlantic Ocean began 160 million years ago.  The North Atlantic Ocean basin did not start opening at the same time as the southern Atlantic Ocean basin.  The northern Atlantic Ocean basin is approximately 40 million years older as the south of the Atlantic Ocean basin is only around 120 million years old.

Conclusion

The above was a report of plate tectonics using Google Earth of topographic patterns, seismic patterns, volcano patterns, plate boundaries, and plate motion. It gives the system to clarify the conveyance of seismic tremors and volcanoes and an instrument for the moderate float of the landmasses over the Earth’s surface. The hypothesis has now arrived at such a degree of logical acknowledgement that the development of plates, both comparative with each other and to the problem area reference outline, are being utilized to construe development of the problem area reference outline as for the Earth’s rotational hub. Plate tectonics is excellent, binding together a hypothesis of Earth sciences, joining the ideas of mainland float and ocean bottom spreading into one comprehensive interpretation that clarifies a considerable lot of the significant essential highlights of the Earth’s surface. It explains why the maritime lithosphere is never more established than around 180 Ma and why just the mainlands have safeguarded the Earth’s land record for as far back as 4000 Ma.

References

Boyden, J. A., Müller, R. D., Gurnis, M., Torsvik, T. H., Clark, J. A., Turner, M., … & Cannon, J. S. (2011). Next-generation plate-tectonic reconstructions using GPlates

Harvey, J. E., Burbank, D. W., & Bookhagen, B. (2015). Along-strike changes in Himalayan thrust geometry: Topographic and tectonic discontinuities in western Nepal. Lithosphere, 7(5), 511-518.

Parham Jr, T. L., Cervato, C., Gallus Jr, W. A., Larsen, M., Hobbs, J., Stelling, P., … & Gill, T. E. (2010). The InVEST volcanic concept survey: Exploring student understanding about volcanoes. Journal of Geoscience Education, 58(3), 177-187.

Torsvik, T. H., Steinberger, B., Gurnis, M., & Gaina, C. (2010). Plate tectonics and net lithosphere rotation over the past 150 My. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 291(1-4), 106-112.

Varga, P., Krumm, F., Riguzzi, F., Doglioni, C., Süle, B., Wang, K., & Panza, G. F. (2012). Global pattern of earthquakes and seismic energy distributions: Insights for the mechanisms of plate tectonics. Tectonophysics, 530, 80-86.