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Tectonics and Stratigraphy
7 Major Plates
• African Plate, covering Africa - Continental plate
• Antarctic Plate, covering Antarctica - Continental plate
• Australian Plate, covering Australia (fused with Indian
Plate between 50 and 55 million years ago) - Continental
plate
• Eurasian Plate covering Asia and Europe - Continental
plate
• North American Plate covering North America and northeast Siberia - Continental plate
• South American Plate covering South America Continental plate
• Pacific Plate, covering the Pacific Ocean - Oceanic plate
What Drives Tectonics?
Convection
• Definition : The cycle of movement in the
asthenosphere that causes the plates of the lithosphere
to move. Heated material in the asthenosphere becomes
less dense and rises toward the solid lithosphere,
through which it cannot rise further. It therefore begins to
move horizontally, dragging the lithosphere along with it
and pushing forward the cooler, denser material in its
path. The cooler material eventually sinks down lower
into the mantle, becoming heated there and rising up
again, continuing the cycle. See also plate tectonics.
Types Of Boundaries
• Divergent
- rift valleys
• Convergent
-ocean to ocean
- ocean to continental
- continental to continental
Focus On!!!
• Convergent
• Where?
- The Himalayas
Himalayas
• Indian Plate collides with
the Eurasian
• Pictures shows the
migration of India from
around 71mya to 10mya
Broken into Sections
• Quaternary
-upper
- middle
-Lower
• Paleozoic
• Precambrian
• Tertiary Leucogranite
Top to Bottom
Quaternary
• Age form .1 ma to .8 ma
• Consists of alluvial sediments
-Alluvial sediments- clay or slit or gravel
carried by rushing streams and deposited
where the stream slows down
Upper, Middle and Lower
• Range from the Tertiary down to the
Triassic 1.8 to 243 ma
• Consists Siwalik Formation
• Which the Upper, Middle, and Lower are
composed of sandstone and shale
Paleozoic
• Upper part
• 248-443 may
• Consists of mainly Limestone and Marl
*Marl-calcium carbonate or lime-rich
muds or mudstones which contain variable
amounts of clays and calcite or aragonite.
Paleozoic
• Lower Part
• 443-548ma
• Consists of Phyllite and Quartzite
*Phyllite- is a type of foliated metamorphic
rock primarily composed of quarts, sericite
mica, and chlorite; the rock represents a
gradiation in the degree of metamorphism
between slate and mica schist.
Precambrian
• Upper
• 543-1200 ma
• Consists of Phyllite and Quartzite
Precambrian
• Lower
• 1200-2500 ma
• Consists of Gneiss and Migmatite
*Migmatite- form under extreme pressure
b/w igneous and metamorphism
Cited Work and References
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Websites
U.S. Geological Survey Special Publication:
wc.pima.edu/.../setting/geology_platetec.htm
http://wc.pima.edu/~bfiero/tucsonecology/setting/images/
plates_ooc01.gif
gpc.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/GPS/platetect.html:
Pamela J.W. Gore
Georgia Perimeter College
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/plates
3.html
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/elevator.html
http://mediatheek.thinkquest.nl/~ll125/en/crust.htm
Con’t
• Kious, W.J., and Tilling, R.I., 1996, THIS DYNAMIC
EARTH--THE STORY OF PLATE TECTONICS: U.S.
Geological Survey Special Publication, 77 p
• Courtillot, Vincent and Vink, G.E., 1983, HOW
CONTINENTS BREAK UP: Scientific American, v. 249,
no. 1, pp. 42-49
• Bird, J.M., ed., 1980, PLATE TECTONICS (revised ed.):
Washington, D.C., American Geophysical Union, 986 p.