Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics

Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
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Wherever possible, diagrams on this page are modified from original diagrams in scientific papers. These are
based on the actual diagrams used by the discoverers of plate tectonics.

Global Problems in Geology

Distribution of Continents
Mid-ocean Ridges
Trenches
Orogenic Belts
Deformation
Metamorphism
Volcanism
Earthquakes

Continental Drift
Frank Taylor (1910)
Alfred Wegener (1912) Die Entstehung Der Kontinente Und Ozeane
World War II technology for locating submarines
Sonar
Magnetometers
International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1957-58
Full extent of Mid-Ocean Ridges
Axial Rift Valley along Ridges
Thin Sediment in Oceans
Young Ocean Floors
Geomagnetic Reversals
Worldwide Standardized Seismic Network 1963Developed in part to Support Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
Common Instrument Design
Standardized Timekeeping
Central Repositories
Unprecedented Accuracy in Location

The Confirmation of Continental Drift

The Geomagnetic Reversal Time Scale

The diagram above, based on one by G. Brent Dalrymple, superbly illustrates how science proceeds by
successive approximation. In the first five papers, there is general agreement that the magnetic field had its
present orientation for the past million years, but disagreement over whether the previous normal period
ended 2.0 or 2.5 million years ago.
The second and third papers were published only 13 days apart, far too short a time to re-analyze data, and
write and publish a rebuttal. All these workers knew one another and were constantly communicating
informally. There was no doubt they were all reporting their results reliably. The question is: why were they
getting different results?
The sixth paper shows what was happening. In addition to the long periods ("epochs") of normal or reversed
polarity, there are also short periods, or "events" where the magnetic field flips from one orientation to the
other and back in a few thousand years. The rest of the papers show the later progress of adding
progressively finer details.
It is important to note that only the magnetic field of the Earth flips; 1.5 million years ago, a present-day
compass needle would have pointed south rather than north. The rotation axis of the Earth does not flip!

Discovery of Sea-Floor Spreading

Where Does Ocean Crust Go?

The answer to that question was already on hand. In 1954, Hugo Benioff had published a study of
earthquakes beneath ocean trenches. The following three figures are modified from Benioff's original paper.

One of the trenches Benioff studied was the Japan-Kurile Trench in the North Pacific.

A cross-section shows how earthquakes lie on a planar zone dipping from the trench beneath the continent.

Benioff interpreted the dipping zones of earthquakes as giant thrust faults. He did not envision continental
drift at the time.

Once sea-floor spreading was discovered, it was simple to modify Benioff's concept. The dipping seismic
zones are great thrust faults, but oceanic crust is moving continuously along them to be recycled in the
Earth's interior.

The Worldwide Standardized Seismic Network

The Worldwide Standardized Seismic Network created a global system of seismographs all using common
timekeeping standards and sending data to common repositories. This system allowed radical improvements
in accuracy of earthquake locations. Instead of showing a diffuse smear of seismicity along the mid-ocean
ridges, the system showed that earthquakes were confined to extremely narrow zones along the crest of the
ridges. Basically, the new maps showed that the earth consisted of large blocks or plates of crust with little
earthquake activity, bounded by narrow zones of high activity.
There is some activity within the plates. If it looks like the U.S. and Western Europe are particularly hard hit,
that reflects the concentration of sensitive instruments capable of detecting tiny earthquakes in those regions.

This, of course, was all motivated by a desire to achieve a deeper understanding of the unique planet on
which we live. You wish. I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in. Or, more in keeping with
the Internet age, I have $20 million dollars to share if you give me your bank account number so I can
deposit it. No, the motivation was to see if anyone was cheating on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The first maps published showed a cluster of dots in the Sahara Desert. Anyone reading the papers could
figure out that those were French nuclear tests (at that time France controlled Algeria). When the scientists
analyzing the data included a short note to that effect, all sorts of red lights and sirens went off in the
Pentagon and the State Department, and the note was removed. Meanwhile, every geologist in the world
heard the story. You have to wonder what the Pentagon and the State Department accomplished (their
children and grandchildren are now in charge of Homeland Security.)

Plate Tectonics

The diagram above, from a 1969 paper by Isaacs, Oliver and Sykes, shows the different types of plate
interaction
Crust of Earth Consists of Rigid Moving Plates
Plates CanMove Apart
New Crust Created
Slide past Each Other
Strike Slip Faults
Converge on Each Other
Crust Consumed
Continents Passive
Deformation at Edges
Fragmentation
Ocean Basins Active
Crust Created at Ridges
Crust Consumed in Trenches
Continental Crust Not Consumed
Continents 3900 My
Oceans 200 My
Recycling of Oceanic Crust
Chemical Evoluation of Earth
No Old Oceanic Crust

Probable Driving Mechanism is Convection

Explanatory Power
Physiography of Ocean Basins
Ridges
Abyssal Plains
Trenches
Seamount Chains
Location & Depth of Earthquakes
Location & Types of Vulcanism
Formation of Mountain Chains
Contributes to Explaining
Igneous Rock Genesis
Paleoclimate
Paleoecology
Resource Genesis
Eustatic Sea Level Changes
Quantitative Power - Geometrical Rules
Plates Rigid
Change Shape in Limited Ways
Move on Sphere

Plate Tectonics Cannot Yet Explain

Tectonics of Earliest Earth
Location of Many Small Fragments
Future Plate Motions
Global Pattern of Plates (Is there a geometrical pattern?)
How and where Plates will Fragment
Details of Driving Mechanism

Reconstructing Plate Motions

Can provide Exact Reconstruction
Continental Fit

This pioneering computer reconstruction, done in 1965, is so good that new data have had almost no effect
on it. The actual edge of the continental crust is buried under the edge of the continental shelf and the
submarine contour used in the reconstruction is only an approximation. Minor gaps and overlaps are
expected and not a concern.
Magnetic Stripes
Can Provide Latitude Only
Paleomagnetism
Paleoclimate
Can Give Loose Indications of Plate Proximity
Paleoecology
Sequence of Collisions

Geology of Plate Margins

Spreading Centers
Transform Faults
Subduction Zones and Orogeny
Terrane Accretion

Hot Spots

History of Continental Movements

Rodinia and Other pre-Pangaea Supercontinents

Plate Tectonics and Regional Geology

Closing of the Tethys
The North Pacific and the West Coast of North America
Sea-floor spreading creates symmetrical patterns on both plates. Thus, if one plate is entirely subducted, it is
still possible to reconstruct some of its history from the surviving plate. This is the case off the west coast of
North America, where a now-vanished plate can be reconstructed.
Return to 296-202 Class Notes Index
Access Crustal Movements Notes Index
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Created 21 May 1997, Last Update 14 December 2009
Not an official UW Green Bay site