ERTH 2415 Lecture Notes - Oceanic Crust, Outer Core, Asthenosphere

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: ERTH 2415
• Professor: A.Bawagan

Document Summary

Objectives: to describe the earth"s internal structure, to be able to explain how plate tectonics operate, to appreciate the evidence for plate tectonics, to describe the different tectonic environments. Contents: distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes, the layered earth, the tectonic cycle, evidence for plate tectonics, our tectonic world, tectonic environments. 1. 0 distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes: earthquakes and volcanoes do not occur at random locations. 2. 0 the layered earth: differentiation: process by which gravity causes denser material to gradually migrate to the center of a planet, earth is differentiated into layers based on, density. Outer layer crust: silicon and oxygen (less dense: crust: this and rich in silicon and oxygen, continental crust stuff we walk on (less dense, oceanic crust ocean floor (more dense) Mantle: iron and magnesium (dense: mantle: magnesium and iron rich. Inner core: solid iron (very dense: core: iron rich and metallic. Rigid lithosphere what we walk on solid! Plastic asthenosphere also solid like play-dough.