ESCI 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Plate Tectonics, Seafloor Spreading, Oceanic Crust
Document Summary
Given an image of part of the earth"s surface, be able to identify its main geological features and explain their origin in terms of plate tectonic processes: notes: Divergent plate boundary features: contains rift valleys and seafloor spreading zones. In an ocean, the rising magma creates elevated crust in the center, and elevation decreases as you look further from the center of the spreading zone. Convergent subduction boundary features: oceanic trench forms where the plate is subducting; subducting water creates magma, which separates from solid rock and rises to fuel a line of volcanoes on overlying plate. Convergent collision boundary features: after running out of oceanic lithosphere at a subducting zone, the slow collision of plates creates a continental mountain chain as the plate margins buckle and deform. Be able to construct and label cross-section and map sketches of a given area, illustrating the plate tectonic processes responsible for any surface features: notes: see pages 2. 13-2. 16.
