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Interior of

the Earth
Up. Mantel
Up. Mantel
Lithosphere
2.7 g/cm
3
2.7 g/cm3
3.2 g/cm3
Isostasy
The principle of isostasy governs the rise or
subsidence of the crust until the mass is
buoyantly balanced

Because of isostasy, all parts of the lithosphere
are in a floating equilibrium.

Low-density wood blocks float high and have deep
roots, whereas high-density blocks float low
and have shallow roots.

Fig. 2.2
The Three Most Important
Cycles
The hydrologic cycle:
Water in Earths hydrosphere.
The rock cycle:
Rock is formed, modified, decomposed, and
reformed by the internal and external processes
of Earth.
The tectonic cycle:
Movements of plates of lithosphere, and the
internal processes of Earths deep interior that
drive plate motions.


The Rock Cycle
Rock is any naturally formed, nonliving, firm and coherent
aggregate of mineral matter that constitutes part of a planet.
The three rock families:
Igneous rock:
Created through the cooling and solidification of
magma
Sedimentary rock:
Formed from deposits of sediment
Metamorphic rock:
Formed by the effects of pressure and heat on
existing rocks

The Rock Cycle
The rock cycle describes all the
processes by which rock is:
Formed
Transported
Decomposed
Reformed
Active volcanoes produce
igneous rocks.

Mountain ranges rise as a
result of plate tectonics.

Weathering and erosion
change the surface of the solid
Earth.
The Rock Cycle
The sediment is buried and
compacted, eventually
becoming sedimentary rock.

Deeper burial turns
sedimentary rock into
metamorphic rock.

Even deeper burial may
cause some of the
metamorphic rock to melt,
forming magma from which
new igneous rock will form.
The Tectonic
Cycle
Tectonics is the
study of the
movement and
deformation of
the lithosphere.

When magma
rises from deep
in the mantle, it
forms new
oceanic crust at
mid-ocean
ridges.


1.8

In 1912 Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist proposed
that the continents were all together like one piece, named
them as PANGAEA (means All Land)
Then drifted apart and reached their present location a
theory of Continental Drift
Africa
Earth as Jigsaw Puzzle
S.America
Figure 20.1 A
Continents once fit together
A. Before continental drift a few hundred million years ago, the continents were clustered together as a giant supercontinent
that has been called Pangaea. The Atlantic Ocean had not yet opened. The pale blue fringes on the continents are continental
shelves, which are part of the continents. The areas of overlap and gap (in red and darker blue) are small.
B. Some distinctive fossils and mountain ranges lie in belts across the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Glaciation in Warm Areas
A. Continental masses of the southern hemisphere appear to have been parts of a supercontinent 300 million
years ago, from which a continental ice sheet centered on Antarctica spread outward to cover adjacent parts
of South America, Africa, India, and Australia. After separation, the continents migrated to their current
positions.
B. The inset photo shows glacial grooves like those found in the glaciated areas of those continents.
Continental drift: The super-continent Pangaea began to break up about
225-200 million years ago.
Fragmented into the numerous continents
Panthalassa
If the continents are joined the occurrence and
distribution of fossil (flora) plants and (fauna)
animals show a definite patterns about their remains
(shown by the bands of colors)

Lithospheric Plates
Most large lithospheric plates consist of both continental and oceanic areas. Although the Pacific Plate is largely oceanic,
it does include parts of California and New Zealand. General direction and velocities of plate movement (compared with
hotspots that are inferred to be anchored in the deep mantle), in centimeters per year, are shown with red arrows.
The Earth on which we live is broken into a dozen of rigid slabs called
Tectonic plates (Lithospheric Plates) that are moving relative to
one another
What drives the plates?
The mobile rock beneath the rigid plates is believed
to be moving in a circular manner somewhat like a
beaker field with water is heating to boiling

The hot water rises to the surface, spreads and
begins to cool, and then sinks back to the bottom of
the pot where it is reheated and rises again.

This cycle is repeated over and over to generate
known as convection cell or convective flow

1.8

Plate Motion

Eurasian Plate
Indo-Australian Plate
Pacific Plate
South American
Plate
North American
Plate
Nazca
Plate
African Plate
Eurasian Plate
Antarctic
Plate
Distribution of Earthquakes and Active
Volcanoes along the Plate boundaries

Transform boundaries -- where crust is neither produced nor destroyed as
the plates slide horizontally past each other.
Plate Boundaries
Most movement occurs along narrow zones between plates where the results of
plate-tectonic forces are most evident.There are three types of plate boundaries:
Divergent boundaries -- where new crust is generated as the plates
pull away from each other.
Convergent boundaries -- where crust is destroyed as one plate subduct
under another.

Spreading Centre
Subduction zone
Transform faulting
Divergent boundaries occur along
spreading centers where plates are
moving apart and new crust is
created by magma pushing up from
the mantle.
During World War II detailed mapping of
the ocean floor was carried out
Later H. Hess and R. Deitz modified
Holmess convection theory, and
called the new theory as "Sea-floor
Spreading".
Among the seafloor features that
supports the sea-floor spreading theory
are: mid-oceanic ridges, deep sea
trenches, island arcs etc.
TYPE-I
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARY OR CONSTRUCTIVE BOUNDARY
The best known example of the divergent
boundaries is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
This submerged mountain range, extends
from the Arctic Ocean to beyond the
southern tip of Africa, is one segment of
the global mid-ocean ridge system that
encircles the Earth.
The rate of spreading along the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge averages about 2.5 cm/yr, or
25 km in a million years
African
plate
American
plate


Beginning of an Ocean
The East African Rift
Valley spreads the
continent apart at
rates 100 times slower
than typical oceanic
rift zones.

This rift forms one arm
of a triple junction,
from which the Red
Sea and the Gulf of
Aden form somewhat
more rapidly spreading
rifts.

Subduction Zone Hazards
A continental volcanic arc forms on a continent where the oceanic lithosphere
descends beneath the continental margin. Earthquakes are generated in the
subduction zone where the overriding lithosphere sticks against the descending
lithosphere and then suddenly slips
Volcanoes near Subduction Zone


Numerous narrow trenches thousands of kilometers long and 8 to 10 km deep are
located at the Pacific Ocean, e.g. along South America the Peru-Chile trench.
Trenches are the deepest parts of the ocean floor and are created by subduction
Examples Volcanic arc: alpine chain, Andes Mtns. West coast of Mexico, Cascades -
Pacific Northwest of United States
Convergence of Oceanic plate and
Continental plate
When an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate, the plate carrying the heavier oceanic
crust will slide beneath the continental crust and melt into the mantle, forming a subduction zone
S. American
Plate
Nazca
Plate
Earth Structure
A slice into the Earth shows a solid inner core and a liquid outer core, both
composed of nickel-iron.

Peridotite in Earths mantle makes up most of the volume of the Earth.
Earths crust, on which we live, is as thin as a line at this scale.

Peridotite: Low in silica and high in iron-magnesium (ultramafic - olivine and
pyroxene)


Fig. 2.8
Fig. 2.20
Hot Spots And Absolute Motion

During the nineteenth century, American
geologist James Dwight Dana (1813-1895)
observed that the age of extinct volcanoes in
the Hawaiian Island chain increases as one gets
farther away from the active volcanoes on the
big island.

Earthquakes occur only near the active
volcanoes
Hot Spots And Absolute Motion
In the 1960s, J. Tuzo Wilson proposed that a
long-lived hot spot lies anchored deep in the
mantle beneath Hawaii.
A hot buoyant plume of mantle rock continually
rises from the hot spot, partially melting to form
magma at the bottom of the lithospheremagma
that feeds Hawaiis active volcanoes.
If the seafloor moves over the mantle plume, an
active volcano could remain over the magma source
only for about a million years.

Oceanic Hotspots
The relief map of the Hawaiian-Emperor chain of volcanoes clearly shows the movement of the crust over the hotspot that is
currently below the Big Island of Hawaii, where there are active volcanoes. Two to three million years ago, the part of the
Pacific Plate below Oahu was over the same hotspot. The approximate rate and direction of plate motion can be calculated
using the common belief that the hotspot is nearly fixed in space through time. The distance between two locations of known
ages divided by the time (age difference) indicates a rate of movement of about 9 cm per year. The lithospheric plate, moving
across a stationary hotspot in the Earths mantle (moving to the left in this diagram), leaves a track of old volcanoes. The active
volcanoes are over the hotspot.
When Oceanic and Oceanic plate
converge, the heavier crust [older]
will slide under the lighter
[younger] crust forming a
subduction zone.

The plate underneath bends and
produces an deep oceanic trench,
e.g. the fast-moving Pacific Plate
converges against the slower
moving Philippine Plate

The down going plate starts
melting, resulting into the rise of
magma, which over the surface
leads into formation of a volcano or
island arcs.


Examples Japan, West Indies,
Aleutian Islands, Philippine Islands,
Indonesia, Central America

Oceanic-Oceanic Convergence
Oceanic-Oceanic
convergence
The Mariana Trench is
located north of New
Guinea. About 400 km SW
of Guam

The Pacific Ocean Plate and
the Philippine Ocean Plate,
pushed against one another
to form the Marianas
Trench

The trench is about 11,035
m deep, and the chain forms
the peaks that lead down to
the trench, making the
deepest water on Earth!
Philippine
plate
Pacific
plate


When two continents
meet head-on, neither
is subducted

Because the
continental rocks are
relatively light and, like
two colliding icebergs,
resist downward
motion.

The crust tends to
buckles up and pushed
upward or sideways.

Continental-Continental Convergence or
collision
Type III: Convergent
Margin/Collision Zone
Collision zones that mark the closure of a
former ocean form spectacular mountain
ranges.
The Alps.
The Himalayas.
The Appalachians.

Continental
Collision
Zones
A. Collision of two continental plates generally occurs after subduction of oceanic
crust. The older, colder, denser plate may continue to sink, or the two may
merely crumple and thicken. Collision promotes thickening of the combined
lithospheres and growth of high mountain ranges.
B. The Himalayas, which are the highest mountains on any continent, were
created by collision between the Indian and Eurasian Plates.
The Himalayas
The mighty Himalaya (2900 km), is a creation of plate tectonic
forces, developed by continental-continental collision

Because both these continental landmasses having the same
rock density, one plate could not be subducted under the
other.

This phenomenon of deformation resulted into formation of
Himalayan ranges.
o Before the breaking up of Pangaea at about 200 million years
ago, India was a large island situated south of equator near the
Australian coast, and was separated from Asia by a vast ocean
(called Tethys Sea).

o About 80 million years ago, India was located roughly 6500-7000
km south of the Asian continent; moved northward at a rate of
about 9 m/ century.

o Indian plate collided into Asian plate about 40 to 50 million
years ago, its northward movement slowed down by about half.

o The collision and associated decrease in the rate of plate
movement are interpreted to mark the beginning of the rapid
uplift of the Himalayas.

Most of the growth occurred during the past 10 million
years. The Himalayas, towering as high as 8,850 m above
sea level, form the highest continental mountains in the
world.

Old Oceanic
crust
11,035 m deep
8850 m high

Indian
Plate
Eurasian
Plate
Arabian
Sea
Indian Ocean
Bay of
Bengal
The mighty Himalaya
stretching east to west
over 2900 km of length is
a result of continental
convergence and collision
between Indian and
Eurasian plates. It is one
of the most seismically
active intercontinental
regions of the world.

Eurasian Plate
Indian Plate
Arabian
Sea
Indian Ocean
Bay of
Bengal

Active faults mapping in NW Himalaya
Indian Seismic zone maps since 1962: (a) 1962 edition, (b) 1966 edition, (c) 1984 version,
and (d) 2002 edition (Redrawn based on IS:1893-1962, 1966, 1984 and 2002).

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