Lab 02 - Plate Tectonics
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GEOL 1302
Lab 02
Plate Tectonics
In the first part of this lab, you are going to explore different methods of determining rates of
plate motion.
The second part deals with geologic features found at different types of plate
boundaries.
Your lab instructor will guide you through these exercises.
Please also refer to your
textbook for a review of tectonic plates, plate boundaries, and plate motion.
An additional useful
source of information is the United States Geological Survey website
https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html
Supplies
needed for this lab: simple calculator, ruler
Please submit the lab to your instructor.
Don’t forget to put your name on it!
1. Displayed in the lab room are maps that show the age of the ocean floor (based on
paleomagnetic data and age data from rock samples).
Find the oldest crust located at the east
coast of North America.
How old is it approximately?
on the east coast the oldest crust is approximately 180 million years old.
The distance from this place to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the crust initially formed, is about
1920 miles.
What is the average rate of motion for North American Plate in miles per million
years? Please show your work. determine velocity
The average rate of motion for the North American plate is about V=10.667 miles per million
years.
V=d/t
=1920/180 mil.
V=10.667 miles per million years
Now convert your answer into centimeters per year (Hint:
There are 5,280 feet in one mile, 12
inches in one foot, and 2.54 cm in 1 inch), and please show your work.
Check if your answer
falls into the common range of plate motion (1-16 cm/yr) – if not, something went wrong with
your calculation. multiplying
10.7 * 5280 * 12 * 2.54 / 10*6
= (1.722 cm/yr)
1
2. The map below shows the locations of the Hawaiian Islands with their ages in millions of
years. What was the approximate average rate of movement of the Pacific Plate in cm/yr for the
past ~5 million years? (Hint:
Use the scale on the map to determine the distance between
Hawaii, where the current hotspot activity is located, and a spot between Niihau and Kauai,
where the hotspot was located approximately 5 million years.
Then divide the distance by the
age – don’t forget to convert your result into cm/yr).
Please show your work.
7.3 cm/yr / 2.7 km * 200 = 540.740 km
540.74 km/5*6=108.15 million years
540.74km*100,000/5*6
3. On the volcano maps displayed in the lab, compare the west coast of North America with its
east coast.
What differences do you observe?
What is the likely explanation for these
differences (you can also refer to the map of tectonic plates displayed in the lab room to answer
this question)?
the differences that i observe the west coast has alot of earthquakes and it is a convergent
boundary, and along the east coast has little to none volcanic activity and has the appalachian
boundaries.
2
4. Below you find a table with earthquake data for South America from 1993 to 1994.
Plot the
longitude (horizontally) vs. depth (vertically) in the graph below. What do you notice about the
earthquake foci as you go from west to east ( = further inland from the west coast)?
What
appears to be happening to the two plates that meet at the west coast of South America?
0 (km) west
longitude
east X
500 (km)Y
x is biggest to smallest
y is smallest to biggest 0 top biggest down
3
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