01:460:100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: African Plate, Viscosity, Lithosphere

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Geological Sciences
• Course: 01:460:100
• Professor: Christopherlepre

Document Summary

Plate tectonics mantle rheology imparts stress on the outermost rock and mineral layers of earth causing them to break and move. They are the core, mantle, and crust (from inside out). Elements come together to form molecules, molecules come together to form minerals, minerals come together to form rocks, rocks come together to form major layers of earth. Plate tectonics are named by distribution, location and character of earth"s oceans and continents. There was once a super-continent of pangaea, plate tectonics moved the lands away from one another to form todays continents. Planetesmal (hot rocky mass) came to become a rocky planet. Outer core: composed of solid iron, about 99% Oceanic crust a lot of mg and fe in addition to si and o. Continental crust mainly composed of silicon and oxygen = silicon tetrahedron sio4. Lower mantle tends to be a little more ductile, flows a little bit more.