Subduction Methods Answers

This lab uses earthquake data to construct profiles of two convergent boundaries: the Tonga Trench and the Peru-Chile Trench. Where two tectonic plates converge, if one or both of the plates is an oceanic lithosphere, a subduction zone will form. When crust is formed at a mid-ocean ridge, it is hot and buoyant meaning it has a low density. As it spreads away from the ridge and cools and contracts, or becomes denser, it is able to sink into the hotter underlying mantle. When two oceanic plates collide, the younger of the two plates, because it is less dense will ride over the edge of the older plate. The density of the

As a tectonic plate slides into the mantle, the heat releases fluids trapped in the plate. Seawater and carbon dioxide, rise into the upper plate and can partially melt the overlying crust, forming magma. And magma most likely means volcanoes are around.

The theory of plate tectonics states that the Earth’s lithosphere (top layer of the Earth’s crust) is split up into rigid sections called plates that are moving relative to one another as they move on top of the underlying semi-molten mantle. These plates are either continental, The North American Plate, or oceanic, The Nazca Plate.

    The rock cycle describes the formation, the breakdown and the reformation of a rock. The three different types of rocks are sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous; although all rocks are created by minerals, each rock has a different formation, breakdown, and reformation which splits the rocks into the three different types of rocks. These rocks have numerous elements in common, but are created different ways. Sedimentary rocks are created by pieces of many different rocks that create rocks. Metamorphic rocks are rocks that are created from heat and pressure these rocks can be sedimentary, igneous, or other metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks begin as a melted rock that freeze. Rocks are nonliving and created with different minerals, but their formation, breakdown, and reformation are different and this is how we categorize each rock into its category. Therefore, dependent on how a rock is created, heated, or frozen; rocks are similar in regards to being created from minerals.

According to the research report, it will cause thousands of people die, towns submerged, buildings and bridges damaged once a huge earthquake and tsunamis happened on the Pacific Northwest area near American coast. And losses will be estimated at over 5 billion dollar US dollars. This shocking article was composed by seismic safety advisory committee in Oregon. According to materials, a super-strong earthquake once happened in A.D. 1700 Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) on the Pacific Northwest coast. There are some experts forecast that another super-huge earthquake will occur in the future. The report has shown that once the earthquake occurs, the regions from North California to British Columbia Coastal region will suffer devastation, cause heavy casualties. Water and electricity shortage issues definitely follow this heavy disaster, meanwhile, communication and heating system and gas supply will definitely broken off in the light of this earthquake. The CSZ is a 1,000 km long dipping fault that stretches from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in northern California. It separates the Juan de Fuca (Juan

Energy transfers in the rock cycle, solar energy for example, wind breaks down the sediments, heat from the sun causes the rocks to crack, rain slowly dissolves rock. Next, we have gravity, gravity moves around the rocks to its right place, some examples are waterfalls, and mudslides. Chemical energy reacts within the Earth’s crust changing rocks from one form to the other. Heat energy causes the Earth’s rocks to melt completely or partially.

Geologic cycle: A group of interrelated sequences of Earth processes known as the hydrologic, rock, techtonic, biogeochemical cycles.

Starting with the subduction of the oceanic plate which is being dragged beneath the North American Plate. The weight of the water on the oceanic plates increases the density of the oceanic crust to the point where it get snagged underneath the continental crust. After years of being dragged under the North American plate, the Pacific plate fills with high amounts energy and tension to then

The image below shows orange dotted lines representing fault lines which led to the earthquake.

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is also known as the New Madrid Fault Line. A fault is a thin zone of crushed rock that separates the Earth’s crust. Whenever an earthquake takes place, it occurs on one of the faults. Then the rock on one of the sides slips with respect to the other. The fault line is made up of reactivated faults. The reactivated faults formed when North America began to separate. Faults were formed next to rift and igneous rocks were formed from the magma that was pushed up to the surface (Wapedia (2010). The rift was covered with younger sediments. The sediments that covered the rift included Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of the Mississippi embayment. Large amounts of the sediment was loosely consolidated, soft and sandy as a result of the ground shaking, ground deformation, slides, slumps, and liquefaction. A mass of intrusive igneous rock (also known as pluton, mass of igneous rock and a deep reservoir of magma)

The reason why so many people are choosing to live next to a subduction zone is because of their close proximity to certain geographical features (i.e. the oceans and mountains). This is because a subduction zone is where two tectonic plates are rubbing against each other. Over the course of time, this can create sudden changes to the formation of the landscape often involving: earthquakes and volcanic activity. (Lloyd, 2010)

The three major types of tectonic plates are divergent, subduction and transform. Divergent plates tend to move apart from each other. Subduction plates are when oceanic plate moves under a continental plate. This can cause volcanos to erupt and large sized earthquakes. Transform plates slide back and forth against one another. The Lithosphere consists of the Earths crust and uppermost mantle. The North American plate and the South American plate are the major plates of the lithosphere. The lithosphere also consists of the Pacific plate, the African plate and the Eurasian plate. The Pacific plate is the only major plate that is mainly underwater and is also the largest plate in the lithosphere. The Earth was once one large continental body called Pangea, before the plates started

The rock cycle explains the relations between the three different types of rock. Any of the igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks can melt into magma and cool into igneous rocks. When particles from the former rocks compact and cement together, sedimentary rocks are formed. Rocks that are exposed to high temperatures and pressures can be changed physically or chemically to form a different rock, they are called metamorphic

An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault of fault plane. The location below the earth's surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter. There are four types of earthquakes tectonic,volcanic,collapse,and explosion. Another good topic to study is deeper into the science of earthquakes. ”Most earthquakes occur along faults, or breaks, in the Earth's crust.” by Bill Haneberg.http://tremor.nmt.edu/faq/what.html

A subduction zone is a region on the crust of the earth where two tectonics plate meet one another. The area where the two plates meet is called a plate boundary. When two plates meet at a subduction zone, they converge towards each other, and one these tectonic plates come into contact with each other, one bends and slides underneath another, resulting in one curving down to the mantle. In this circumstance when subduction is taking place the denser plate is the one that sinks beneath