Assignment 2_Plate Tectonics_Chandler_Yen

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Utah Valley University *

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1010

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Geology

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Apr 3, 2024

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Name: Chandler Yen Geology 1010 Assignment 2 Plate Tectonics Instructions: 1) Answer the ten questions below about plate tectonics. 2) Don’t be scared of how long this assignment looks. 3) Hints will be provided in green italicized text. 4) Take your time and have fun! Goals: 1) Be able to identify the three types of plate boundaries. 2) Understand the relationship between earthquakes and volcanoes with plate boundaries. 3) Be able to draw and label the types of plate boundaries. Background Information: South America, the Atlantic Ocean, and Africa are a wonderfully lined up to understand the interworking’s of tectonic plates. The questions below are divided into two parts. In part 1, students interpret bathymetric (seafloor topography), topography, sea floor ages, and earthquake distributions to reinforce concepts about the different types of plate boundaries. Each student must interpret several sets of data to determine the location and type of plate boundary. Figures were created using Google Earth. Most of the data sets were downloaded from the Google Earth Community webpage. Earthquake data are M4.5+ earthquakes that occurred Jan-June 2006 from the USGS global catalog; however more complete earthquake datasets are now available through Google Earth. In part 2, you will be drawing a cross section of crust and upper mantle from the Pacific Plate, through the Nazca Plate, the South American Plate, and into the African Plate. There is a checklist at the end of the assignment to help make sure you don’t forget what you need to have in your drawing. Questions begin on the following page:

Part 1: Examine the following figures and descriptions to answer the follow up questions below. Figure 1: Shown is the mid-Atlantic Ocean region of the globe. The bathymetry of the sea floor is shown with dark blues representing deeper ocean water and light blue representing shallower ocean water. Topography of the continents is also shown with light green representing elevations near sea level and warm colors (yellow and reds) representing high elevations. Solid lines show the plate boundaries and plate names are given by orange label. Dots give earthquake locations and are colored by depth beneath the surface of the Earth (red = shallow and blue = deep). 1) Where is the plate boundary located that separates the South American and African Plates? In the middle wrapping between the two countries. 2) If the boundary was not shown how might you determine the location? Please give two ways. You would be able to see newer land formed along the boundary at a mid ocean ridge. You would also be able to tell by looking at what direction the plate is moving and the interactions at other boundaries. 3) Where do most of the earthquakes in the Atlantic Ocean occur? And, are they shallow or deep? Most of the them occur on the boundary line between Africa and South America and are shallow. Although, it is kind of difficult to see if there are any blue dots in the ocean.

Figure 2: The age of the sea floor is shown for the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Young/recent sea floor ages are shown by warm colors (orange and red) and old sea floor ages are shown by cool colors (blue). 4) Describe how the sea floor age changes as you go from the plate boundary toward the east coast of South America. Its because of the seafloor spreading with new asthenosphere coming up, and it gets older the further from the boundary you get. 5) Describe the relationship between sea floor age, bathymetry (look at figure 1), and the mid-Atlantic plate boundary. They are similar in the fact that I feel like it’s a progression, figure 2 shows us the movement and figure 1 shows us the product of the movement.

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