Discovering Plate Tectonics Lab
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School
Colorado State University, Fort Collins *
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Course
101C
Subject
Geology
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
Pages
9
Uploaded by SargentWillpowerMagpie42
GEOL 121
Name ___________________________________
Lab Sec0on _______________
D
ISCOVERING
P
LATE
T
ECTONICS
Learning Objectives:
○
Summarize plate tectonics and demonstrate understanding of plate motions
○
Describe the features and processes found at different plate boundaries and
explain why they are found there
○
Developing geoscientific skills: analyzing/interpreting data; reading maps;
practicing quantitative skills; thinking in 3D
○
Understand that scientific inquiry is an ongoing/dynamic process; role of
evidence and technology in inquiry
Part 1: Expert analysis
(2pts.)
Geoscientists from different expertise areas will often collaborate to understand complex
problems. We are going to model this approach by having each of you become an expert on
one type of data. You will then share your understanding of that data with the rest of the group.
Instructions
:
Your TA will assign you one of the data sets listed below. Work with your expert group to
examine your dataset and answer the questions below.
Expert Groups (Circle Assigned Topic)
Seismology
·
Volcanology
·
Geochronology
·
Geography/Topography
1.
What is your data telling you? What do the symbols and colors mean?
The map is showing the age of the seafloor in millions of years. The map shows the age
through a color gradient from red to blue with various colors in between. The more blue the
floor is the older it is and the more red, the younger. It goes from 0-180 million years ago.
2.
Compare your data to the Plate Boundary Map on the next page of this worksheet. Note any
differences or similarities.
There are similarities in the sense that the plate boundary locations where plates meet is
where new sea floor is being created.
The smaller plate boundaries are not relative to the
new creation. But some of the spots show young seafloor but is not being created per se.
Along north and south America on the pacific side, there is young sea floor that was being
created due to another divergent boundary but that seafloor was subdued under north
America.
3.
How does your data act on or near plate boundaries? (Examples: narrow/straight/curved,
symmetric/asymmetric, deep/shallow, active/inactive, ridge/valley, etc)
The lines are curved and some are narrow areas and some are more wide. There is a mid
Atlantic ridge in-between north America and south America and Europe and Africa. The
areas that are blue and old are inactive and are sometimes most likely subducting
Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
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Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
Part 2: Examining Known Plate Boundaries
You will now examine sets of maps that show four different boundary types: divergent,
transform, convergent with subduction, and convergent without subduction. Answer the
following questions for each boundary type.
A) Divergent Boundaries (2pts.)
There are two pages showing divergent boundaries. One shows the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, in
the center of the Atlantic Ocean. The other shows a comparison of mid-ocean ridges that are
spreading (creating new ocean crust) at different rates, to give you an idea of how different
divergent boundaries can appear.
1) Describe how each of the datasets (Seismology, Volcanology, Geochronology,
Geography/Topography) behaves at this plate boundary.
Seismology: Many shallow earthquakes along the the divergent boundary.
Volcanology: Couple of active volcanos along the boundary
Geochronology: Young and new sea floor is being created along the boundary as older crust
is being pushed out
Topography: The area along the boundary is more shallow than the older sea floor.
2) What are some distinguishing features at this type of plate boundary? What features
could you use to distinguish this boundary type from the others?
There is a ridge along the entire boundary. As new land is forming along the boundary, there
is more shallow water, but as that new floor gets created the areas around are deeper and
older. This is how we know and understand that this is a divergent boundary.
B) Transform Boundaries (2pts.)
There is one page showing a transform boundary along the western side of North America.
1) Describe how each of the datasets (Seismology, Volcanology, Geochronology,
Geography/Topography) behaves at this plate boundary.
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Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
Seismology: There are a high concentration of earthquakes along the fault line
Volcanology: There are also a good amount of volcanos built up along the line
Geochronology: There is new and young sea floor along this coast that used to subduct but
is now a transform boundary due to the low density of the seafloor
Topography: The topography seems to have more shallow areas along the coast due to the
new sea floor
2) What are some distinguishing features at this type of plate boundary? What features
could you use to distinguish this boundary type from the others?
Some distinguishing features would be the high amount of earthquakes occurring that
usually doesn’t occur with other boundaries. The volcanos are not from the transform
boundary but is from what used to be a convergent boundary.
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Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
C) Convergent Boundary with Subduction (2pts.)
There are two pages showing convergent boundaries with subduction: one near Fiji in the
southwestern Pacific Ocean, and one along the west coast of South America.
1) Describe how each of the datasets (Seismology, Volcanology, Geochronology,
Geography/Topography) behaves at this plate boundary.
Seismology: There are a lot of deep earthquakes that are happening within the subduction
zone
Volcanology: there are many volcanos that are caused by the subjecting oceanic plate
creating magma
Geochronology: There is fairly newer seafloor on the coast
Topography: There is a trench right of the coast where the plate is subducting
2) What are some distinguishing features at this type of plate boundary? What features
could you use to distinguish this boundary type from the others?
Some features that stand out would be the trench right of the coast along with the basaltic
volcanos along the boundary
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Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
D) Convergent Boundary without Subduction (2pts.)
There is one pages showing a convergent boundary where subduction is not taking place in
the Himalayan Mountains where India is colliding with Eurasia.
1) Describe how each of the datasets (Seismology, Volcanology, Geochronology,
Geography/Topography) behaves at this plate boundary.
Seismology: There are earthquakes that are spread out throughout the mountain range
Volcanology: There are no volcanos because there is no subduction occurring
Geochronology: The age of the plate is a lot older and probably will not move anymore
Topography: There is a huge mountain range where the two continental plates collided.
2) What are some distinguishing features at this type of plate boundary? What features
could you use to distinguish this boundary type from the others?
The giant mountain range is the main indicator because there is no subduction happening
but just collision
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Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
Check in with your TA before proceeding to Part 3.
Part 3: Unknown Boundaries
Now that you have developed a mental model of what each of the datasets does at different
plate boundary types, your challenge is to use the data to identify some unknown boundaries.
A) Unknown Boundary 1 (2pts.)
1) What type of boundary is there in this map?
Divergent
2) How do you know? What is your evidence?
The new seafloor is being created with good symmetry on the seafloor ages map. Also on
the topographic map, there is shallow areas where the new seafloor is located
B) Unknown Boundary 2 (2pts.)
1) What type of boundary is there in this map?
Convergent
2) How do you know? What is your evidence?
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Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
There are many deep earthquakes along the boundary along with many volcanoes due to
the subduction
C) Unknown Boundary 3 (2pts.)
1) What type of boundary is there in this map?
Divergent
2) How do you know? What is your evidence?
We know this because Iceland is right above a hotspot on the mid Atlantic ridge and there is
a new seafloor underneath
D) Unknown Boundary 4 (2pts.)
1) What types of boundaries is there in this map (there is more than one type)?
Transform and Convergent with subduction. Also Divergent
2) How do you know? What is your evidence?
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Discovering Plate Tectonics
GEOL 121
There are volcanos along the Guatemalan coast at which the crust is subjecting and
pushing up magma but also there are shallow earthquakes up north which indicate a
transform boundary. There is a trench off of the coast as well which is a sign of subduction.
There is a divergent boundary as well because there is a symmetrical part with new seafloor
Part 4: Reflection
(2pts.)
1) What are three things that you learned from this lab?
-
I learned that new sea floor doesn’t always mean that its a divergent boundary
-
I also learned that Convergent boundaries have deep earthquakes
-
I learned that transform boundaries have shallow earthquakes
2) What questions do you still have about identifying plate boundaries?
None, Im good thank you!
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