Plate tectonics : Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Plate tectonics : Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Go to the following web address: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html
Answer the following questions:

Historical Perspective

1) where does the word tectonics come from?

The word tectonics comes from the Greek root "to build".


2) What two continents did Pangea split into?

Pangea split into Laurasia and Gandwanaland.



Understanding Plate motions

1)What is a divergent boundary? What country has this occurring in it?

Divergent boundaries- where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other. Iceland has this occuring in it.



3) What are convergent boundaries? What country has this occurring in it?

Convergent boundaries- an actively deforming region where tectonic plates of the lithosphere collide. Peru has this occuring in it.




4) What is a transform fault? What famous transform fault is located in California?

Transform fault- the zone between two plates sliding horizontally past on another. The San Andreas fault zone in California is famous.





Hotspots
5) What is a hotspot? What island chain is an example of these hot spots?

Hotspot- relatively small, long-lasting and exceptionally hot regions that exist below the plates and provide high heat energy   to sustain volcanism.



Some unanswered questions
6) What kind of currents are responsible for plate movement?

  Convection currents are responsible for plate movement because the Earth's core produces a lot of heat which causes hot matter to rise up near the Earth's crust and then the matter cools as it approaches the crust and then sinks to the core and the cycle continues.





Go to the following web address: http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/oldroot/volcanoes/alpha.html#m

7) Locate the following volcanoes using the web site and the atlas. For each state the country the volcano is located in, the type of volcano and the tectonic plates involved.

* I found the plates...