GEOL 1303 Chapter Notes - Chapter 19: Continental Margin, Aseismic Creep, South American Plate
4 Mar 2016
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Chapter 19 - plate tectonics the unifying theory. Tectonics is the study of the origin and arrangement of the broad structural features of. Earth"s surface, including not only folds and faults but also mountain belts, continents, and earthquake belts. (carlson, 19) Basic idea of tectonics: earth"s crust is divided into a few large plates that move and change size. Plate tectonics came about by combining sea oor spreading and continental drift. Continental drift: continents move around earth"s surface, changing location relative to each other. Sea oor spreading: hypothesis that the sea oor forms at the crest of the mid-oceanic ridge, then moves horizontally away from the ridge crest toward an oceanic trench. The two sides of the ridge are moving outward - opposite directions. Around early 1900s alfred wegner (german meteorologist) noticed many continents had almost exactly the same paleozoic rocks/fossils. This was used to further prove continental drift.
