Plate Tectonics - Continental Drift Versus Plate Tectonics, An Overview Of Tectonic Theory, Proofs Of Tectonic Theory, Rates Of Plate Movement
plates geologic shift lithospheric
Plate tectonics, is the theory explaining geologic changes that result from the movement of lithospheric plates over the asthenosphere (the molten, ductile, upper portion of Earth's mantle). Plates move and shift their positions relative to one another. Movement of and contact between plates either directly or indirectly accounts for most of the major geologic features at Earth's surface.
The visible continents, a part of the lithospheric plates upon which they ride, shift slowly over time as a result of the forces driving plate tectonics. Moreover, plate tectonic theory is so robust in its ability to explain and predict geological processes that it is equivalent in many regards to the fundamental and unifying principles of evolution in biology, and nucleosynthesis in physics and chemistry.
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Based upon centuries of cartographic depictions that allowed a good fit between the Western coast of Africa and the Eastern coast of South America, in 1858, French geographer Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, published a work asserting that the two continents had once been part of larger single continent ruptured by the creation and intervention of the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1920s, German geophysicist Al…
Boundaries are adjacent areas where plates meet. Divergent boundaries are areas under tension where plates are pushed apart by magma upwelling from the mantle. Collision boundaries are sites of compression either resulting in subduction (where lithospheric plates are driven down and destroyed in the molten mantle) or in crustal uplifting that results in orogeny (mountain building). At transform bo…
As with continental drift theory two of the proofs of plate tectonics are based upon the geometric fit of the displaced continents and the similarity of rock ages and Paleozoic fossils in corresponding bands or zones in adjacent or corresponding geographic areas (e.g., between West Africa and the eastern coast of South America). Ocean topography also provided evidence of plate tectonic theory. Nin…
Due to their lower density and greater thickness, continental-continental convergent plate margins act quite differently than oceanic-oceanic margins. Continental crust is too light to be carried downward into a trench. At continental-continental convergent margins neither plate subducts. The two plates converge, buckle, fold, and fault to form complex mountains ranges of great height. Continental…
If sea floor spreading only produces basaltic (oceanic) rock, where did the continents come from? Knowledge of the processes involved is somewhat limited, but formation of the early continents resulted from subduction at oceanic-oceanic convergent margins. When plates subduct, a process known as partial melting occurs. Partial melting of mafic rock results in the production of magma that is more f…
Plate tectonics revolutionized the way geologists view Earth. This new paradigm brings together nearly all the divisions of geologic study. Like the theory of evolution in biology, plate tectonics is the unifying concept of geology. Plate tectonics' initial appeal and rapid acceptance resulted from its ability to provide answers to many nagging questions about a variety of seemingly unrelat…
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