ESS103H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Plate Tectonics, Continental Drift, Cenozoic
Document Summary
Principle of uniformitarianism: physical laws operating today also operated in the past, gravity, electro-magnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces, founding principle of geology, studying streams, rivers tells how rocks formed in the past. The earth began around 4. 6 billion years ago. 4 main parts of geologic time scale: precambrian, paleozoic, mesozoic, cenozoic. Caledonian and appalachian belts match up, maybe were once connected) Permian glacial distribution (permian is a geological time period lasting from 290-248 million years ago) Skepticism about continental drift: paleoclimate, problem of forces; what made stuff move apart, geologists weren"t familiar with stuff from one area to the next (little communication) Earthquakes usually happen along mid ocean ridges and deep ocean trenches. Volcanoes around the pacific ocean usually (ring of fire) Most continents are of low elevation while location of differing tectonic plates have a higher elevation. Plate tectonics is the unifying theory in geology that explains how the movement of tectonic plates are related to geological features.
