THE CARIBBEAN PLATE Evolution and Origin Ronald Gobin B00673944 Erth 4350 Professor: Nicholas Culshaw December 6th 2016 Introduction The following report will introduce the topic of the Caribbean plate and its evolution, origin and the active physical process within tectonic environments. The Pacific model will be discussed in this paper, and assumes the formation of the Caribbean plate at the Galapagos hotspot in the Pacific Ocean during the Middle Cretaceous. Regional Setting The Caribbean plate is a lithospheric plate consisting mainly of an unusually thick, oceanic plateau situated between two major continental regions, such as North and South America. The Caribbean plate is roughly 3000 km from east to west, and 800 Km from North to South and 2.64 million Km^2 area (James, Lorente, & Pindell, 2009). There are four marine areas present such as the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan basin, and the Cayman trough, which are within the surrounding of the Caribbean plate and its islands. The Cocos Plate, North American Plate, Nazca Plate and the South American Plate surround the Caribbean plate (Figure-1) (HARGRAVES, 1984). Boundaries of Caribbean Plate are from Guatemala along trend of the Cayman Trough, through the greater Antillean islands Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, south through the volcanic arc of the Lesser Antilles that bound the Caribbean plate to the east, along the northern South American continental margin, and the west coast of
Mid-Atlantic Ridge F. Plate motion Motion across the mid-Atlantic ridge: the South American plate vs. the
Volcanic and Seismic events are major pieces of evidence towards proving that plate tectonics theory is valid (40 marks)
Should the Fixists have accepted Alfred Wegeners’ idea of continental drift more quickly? I personally have more sympathy on Wegeners’ part, having some very sound evidence to support an exceedingly well claim. The idea that Pangea, a supercontinent consisting of all the landmasses on earth, existed 300 million years ago, was all Wegeners’. In this essay, I will give evidence to support Wegeners’ claim such as plate boundaries, glacial scratches, mountain ranges, and fossil evidence.
In year 2013, it is estimated that almost 382 million people suffer from diabetes for a prevalence of 8.3%. North America and the Caribbean is the region with the higher prevalence of 11% having 37 million people with diabetes followed by the Middle East and North Africa with a prevalence of 9.2% having 35 million people with diabetes. Western Pacific is the region with higher number of people living with diabetes (138 million), however its prevalence is 8.6%, close to the prevalence of the World.
There are three distinct types of plate boundaries existing, which are supported by geological observation, geophysical data, and theoretical considerations. Their names and categories are based on if adjacent plates move apart from each other (divergent plate margins), toward one another (convergent plate margins), or slip past one another in a direction parallel to their common boundary (transform plate margins) (Pitman, W.C., 2007).
Because the South American plate is of the harder continental crust and not the softer oceanic crust.
In the present age of globalization, it is often forgotten that these world-encompassing processes were initiated with European expansion into the Caribbean beginning more than five hundred years ago. We now see the proliferation of overseas factories enabling owners, producers, and consumers of products to be in widely distant locales. It seems to us that in the search for profits, commercial activity has recently spread to every corner of the earth. We observe that the continual movement of humans across borders results in new forms of hybrid and creolized cultures. And, we feel that the world around us is moving faster and faster: the rapid circulation of
The earth’s crust is made out of plate tectonics. Each plate has a defined boundary and direction it moves. The plates in Earth’s crust perform two actions; they submerge under each other or they spread out. The Pacific Plate is the largest plate and it borders around many plates. The Pacific Plate moves northwest. New crust is formed from magma outpours, which are a result of the zones spreading. The tectonic plates created the islands. When the tectonic plates move, it creates the change in geography. Active volcanoes together shape the way islands are build. The magma from the volcano and the deposits from the plate are needed to create
Plate tectonics move land masses around, and occasionally, interactions between different plates causes new land to form, and can even join two separate continents together, changing ocean currents and causing climate change. This is evident in the collision of the North and South American continents, which created the Isthmus of Panama, and separated the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. Approximately 15 million years ago, the North and South American continent was cut off from each other by a seaway about 200 km wide. Over time, the South American plate collided with the Caribbean and Cocos plate, and gradually closed the exchange of the Caribbean and Pacific waters 3-4 million years ago. This resulted in several consequences.
The Plate Tectonic Theory developed in the late 1960’s, when people noticed how continents either side of the Atlantic Ocean seemed to almost fit together. Francis Bacon, an English Philosopher was aware of this as early as 1620. Topographical and geological evidence built up and allowed Alfred Wegener to publish a theory in 1912, suggesting that the continents were once all joined together in a supercontinent he called Pangaea. Wegener proposed that at some time, the land masses had drifted apart until they occupied their current positions on the globe. There was lots of evidence to support his theory including
The Caribbean plate had been steadily moving about a quarter of an inch per year. But the two plates don 't directly drift past one another. Struggle builds up along inaccuracy at the plate borderlines until it 's emancipated in a sudden burst of exuberance.
The scientific relevance of the islands is that they provide valuable indicators of the role of crustal plates in the formation of ocean basins and continents, of dynamic glacial changes in the coastal and submarine environment, and of atmospheric and ocean warming.
On our home planet, there are eight major tectonic plates- African, Indo-Australian, Eurasian, Antarctic, North American, South American, Nazca and the Pacific. These plates are all separate and floats completely independently upon the Earth's mantle, which is much hotter than the crust of the planet. The locations where these plates meet each other are usually places that are extremely prone to large earthquakes and volcanic
Scientist are struggling to come up with a widely accepted model that will explain the role of non-vertical strike-slip fault segments, crustal movement and deformation within Pacific –North American plate boundary. Multiple methods of analysis are being used; some of which are described below.
(a) Name two groups of Amerindians who lived in the Caribbean before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492.