Dynamics of superplumes in the lower mantle, in superplumes. Jan 07, 2015 mantle convection mixed heating with effective rayleigh number of 1e8, thin stagnant lid. The plate tectonics theory and mantle plume concept thus complement each other to ex. Tectonic plates california institute of technology. Plate movement is driven by convection in earths mantle. D describe how plate tectonics causes major geological events such as ocean. Crust is continuously being regenerated and removed. Multidisciplinary studies, integrating geophysics, geochemistry and geology, are required to further advance our understanding of the earths geodynamic system. Moving plates cover the globe what do scientists think the earths surface is made from. The cretaceous superplume event was truly an earth systemwide event, as it had pronounced affects on the earths deep interior, lithosphere including tectonics, biosphere and atmosphereclimate. Discuss with them how europe, africa, south america, and north america might fit together as puzzle pieces. Seafloor spreading and plate tectonics the path from research to human benefit national academy of sciences shattered by a powerful earthquake on april 18, 1906, the ruins of san franciscos city hall stand surrounded by thousands of tons of brick rubble. Takehome messages earths geology is dominated by the processes of plate tectonics. The thermal and chemical state of the mantle remains rather steady, too.
This is the actual plate boundary, and is where most of the earthquakes and volcanoes take place. Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries which subsequently create midocean ridges. Does the entire lithospheric plate transmit stress in the same way. Yuen 2005 the importance of radiative heat transfer on superplumes in the lower mantle with the new postperovskite phase change. So there is a general consensus that without the slabpull that is so important in modern plate tectonics, there may not have been plate tectonics as such although there may have been subduction. It is made up of pdftojpg v1 2 3 thick, interconnecting pieces called tectonic plates that fit. We combine recent progress in seismic tomography and numerical. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. Since the development of the theory, geologists have had to reexamine almost every aspect of. Initiation and evolution of plate tectonics on earth. Learning about plate tectonics through onscreen interactions. Plate motions, andean orogeny, and volcanism above. Yuen, shigenori maruyama, shunichiro karato, brian f. Gottesman hall of planet earth and use what they have learned to complete a ccssaligned writing task, creating an illustrated text about how plate tectonics plays a role in specific earth formations.
Jun 29, 2007 forty years ago when plate tectonics was first discovered, there was a major shift in thinking in the earth sciences. According to the theory of plate tectonics, the lithosphere is made up of about 12. Instruct your students to assemble the map like putting. Plate tectonics pdf ebook plate tectonics read online and download ebook plate tectonics. Beyond plate tectonics the thermal structure of the solid earth was estimated from the phase diagrams of morb and pyrolite combined with seismic discontinuity planes. The lithosphere lithosphere is comprised of the upper mantle and the crust, the outer shell of the earth. A geochemical and petrological view of mantle plume tetsu kogiso. In this very short introduction peter molnar provides a succinct and authoritative account of the nature and mechanisms of plate tectonics and its impact on our understanding of earth. It has survived from the 1970s until today in various forms and presentations. Similarly, the activity of plate tectonics may reflect the activity of superplumes in the earth, too. Give one piece of the puzzle a plate or piece of a plate to each student or group of students. The frequent plate margin formation keeps the activity of plate tectonics rather steady. Tectonic plates plate boundary referenced from bird, peter 2003 an updated digital model of plate boundaries. Pdf dynamics of superplumes in the lower mantle, in.
Stresses relax in the lower portion of the plate where creep processes dominate, but still behaves coherently with the plate. The cretaceous was characterized by widespread rifting, continental breakup, rapid spreading, and global magmatism. Evidence for other superplume events is somewhat controversial, but geologists have proposed superplume events during the following periods of geologic history. Plate tectonics is selfconsistently modeled as a part of convection of newtonian fluid with. The impact of plate tectonics is studied closely as these processes continue. Earths surface is composed of about twelve rigid plates that move with respect to each other. New oceanic crust is formed through magma rising through the gap and cooling. Zhong physics of the earth and planetary interiors 176 2009 143156 147 fig. Plume tectonics is a geoscientific theory that finds its roots in the mantle doming concept which was especially popular during the 1930s and initially did not accept major plate movements and continental drifting. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed. The subducting plate is to beneath a retreating plate. Your print orders will be fulfilled, even in these challenging times. Shigenori maruyama tokyo institute of technology, japan shunichiro karato yale university, connecticut, u.
Catastrophic plate tectonics a global flood model of earth. The conventional statement of rigid plate tectonics with the hotspot amendment is as follows. Little was known at that time about the deep mantle because of the lack of knowledge about material properties, the absence of any seismic tomography or concepts such as mantle. Explain the concept of plate tectonics, including types of plate boundaries, the. Volcanoes and earthquakes delineate the plate boundaries. I prepared for todays lesson by projecting and tracing the following document plate tectonics template on a large bulletin board paper. In essence, the predominant effects of plate subduction on mantle structures, including plumes and superplumes, suggest wholemantle, topdown tectonics.
Midplate volcanoes and volcanic islands are not related to plate tectonics. While the lateral extent of modern plate can be easily defined by earthquake activity, its thickness is not physically defined. Plasienka geological institute, slovak academy of sciences, slovakia keywords. Superplumes beyond plate tectonics pdf free download.
Supercontinentsuperplume coupling, true polar wander and plume mobility. Photo courtesy of the museum of the city of san francisco. What are the limitations of the plate tectonic theory. Forty years ago when plate tectonics was first discovered, there was a major shift in thinking in the earth sciences. Download superplumes beyond plate tectonics pdf ebook superplumes beyond plate tectonics superplumes beyond plate tectonics ebook author by chorkheng lim superplumes beyond plate tectonics ebook free of registration rating. It has slowly evolved into a concept that recognises and accepts large scale plate motions.
In other words, cooling of the mantle leads to plate tectonics while cooling of the core is responsible for mantle plumes. As the internal heating rate becomes lower, however, the narrow plumes from superplume become sporadic and significantly colder. Chapter plate tectonics worksheet section i what is the theor y of plate tectonics. The solidstate convection in the earth mantle is characterized by plate tectonics, which shapes the tectonic activities of the earth, and superplumes as broad. Little was known at that time about the deep mantle because of the lack of knowledge about material properties, the absence of any seismic tomography or concepts such as mantle convection. Mantle convection mixed heating with effective rayleigh number of 1e8, thin stagnant lid. Despite certain problems, it seemed that plate and plume tectonics, initially existing as parallel paradigms, the former responsible largely for the upper tectonosphere and the latter for the lower tectonosphere, would be able to develop without con. As plates move, the new crust gradually moves away from the ridge.
I attribute the cretaceous pulse of pacific oceanic crust formation to a global plate reorganization associated with the breakup of pangea and rapid growth and reorganization of the pacific plate. Geological understanding of plate tectonics 25 that plate tectonics cools the mantle whereas mantle plumes cool the earths core. Use webbased or other technology tools to show connections and patterns in data about tectonic plate boundaries and earthquakes. Deep mantle plumes and an increasing earth radius sciencedirect. We combine geologic, petrologic, geochronologic, geochemical, and. Illustration of supercontinentsuperplume coupling in the past ma, and the possible presence of a. Introduce students to the concept of continental movement and plate tectonics. Early maps showing the similarity between the east coast of south america and the west coast of africa provided people with the first evidence that the continents may once have been united and subsequently split apart. Plate tectonics is an integral part of convective processes in the earths mantle with. I also organized a few teacher notes on plate tectonics to help guide class discussions today. The cretaceous superplume was the first superplume event to be identified, but there is no reason to believe that it was a unique event in earth history. Finescale ultralow velocity zone layering at the coremantle boundary and superplumes edward j. An onset of plate tectonics on earth around 3 ga may have led to the production and growth of dm and em mantle sources after this time. Beyond plate tectonics, springer, dordrecht 2007, pp.
Dynamics of plumes and superplumes through time experts. Tell them that they will be responsible for their plate placing it in the right position to form the world map and determining the motion of the plate with respect to surrounding plates. Using previously published data for the african superplume, it is estimated that this. Download charlotte luongo ebook file free of charge and this book pdf found at saturday 29th of december 2012 03. Another important argument is that if plateaus are hot and difficult to subduct to depths of 700km, they may just underplate the continents.
Supercontinentsuperplume coupling, true polar wander and. Students will read contentrich texts, visit the david s. Physics of the earth and planetary interiors supercontinent. Define plate tectonics be sure to l ocate and identify all of the following areas on the map on page 233. Superplumes, plates, and mantle magmatism in twodimensional numerical models masaki ogawa1. These evolving platetectonic processes have accompanied the earths thermal history since. From studies of terrestrial mantle xenoliths griffin et al. The earth is composed of layers of different composition and physical properties, principally the solid central core, the fluid peripheral core, the viscous mantle, and the solid. This lack of definition makes it difficult to understand how plates move. Call on volunteers to tell what they know about plate tectonics. Continental drift, sea floor spreading and plate tectonics plate tectonics is a theory developed in the late 1960s, to explain how the outer layers of the earth move and deform. The center of this mountain range is a low lying area or rift, called the atlantic rift zone. Rollback the hinge line of the subducting plate recedes faster then the overriding plate moves forward then the over riding plate must extend to fill the gap hancock, 1994.
Windley this book provides a concise overview of our understanding of the entire mantle, its evolution since early differentiation and the consequences of superplumes for earth surface processes. From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia plate tectonics from greek, tekton builder or mason describes the large scale motions of earths lithosphere. In the earth, new plate margins develop also from the activation of fracture zones, reactivation of former plate margins, extension of existing plate margins, and collision of buoyant continental crusts andor oceanic plateaus e. To explore how the cretaceous earth system responded to the superplume event, see the following resources. Earths crust and upper mantle are divided into plates. Dynamics of superplumes in the lower mantle springerlink. A global flood model of earth history 3 preflood geology any. Plate tectonics is a scientific theory describing the largescale motion of seven large plates and. Places where the seafloor is forced under continental plates. Beyond plate tectonics, abstract this book provides a concise overview of our understanding of the entire mantle, its evolution since early differentiation and the consequences of superplumes for earth surface processes. By the end of 1967, earths surface had been mapped into a series of plates figure 10.
Paleontologists noticed that these were the same on different continents even though the continents were separated by oceans. Beyond plate tectonics article pdf available january 2007 with 39 reads how we measure reads. The lithosphere is found to have an elastic portion which is roughly the upper. Created by oeits artemis group, the plate tectonics interactive visualization challenges students to interpret a 3d globe of tectonic data, providing animations of the opening and closing of ocean basins and the splitting of pangaea.
It asserts that super plumes rise from the deeper mantle and are the drivers or substitutes. The shape of this plate boundary mimics the shapes of the. Gather, analyze, and communicate data that explains earths plates, plate motions, and the results of plate motions dok 12 d. The diverging plate boundary occurs at an underwater mountain range called the midatlantic ridge. The theory has caused a revolution in the way we think about the earth. Platetectonic evolution of the earth canadian science publishing. Plate tectonics is an integral part of convective processes in. Chapter notes worksheet michigan state university. Convergence data are shown by arrows describing direction and speed, relative to the plate across the boundary. Plate convergence vectors referenced from united states geological survey.
666 121 1096 910 347 1525 16 836 659 823 1546 399 824 204 107 1599 905 287 1397 76 822 1063 1592 932 320 137 175 262 380 715 168 1317 21 1264 865 348 499 625 686 56 359 864 1159 1452 467 940 1240 748