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PLANET EARTH IS A DYNAMIC EVOLVING SYSTEM FROM 4.6 BILLION YEARS AGO TO NOW STRUCTURE & COMPOSITION REFLECT ONGOING EVOLUTION EVOLUTION DEPENDS ON HOW HEAT- "THE GEOLOGICAL LIFEBLOOD OF PLANETS" - TRANSFERRED OUT OF COOLING EARTH BY THERMAL CONVECTION (Hot stuff rises) THERMAL CONVECTION CAUSES PLATE TECTONICS: PLATES OF EARTH'S SURFACE MOVE RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER AT A FEW mm/yr (about speed fingernails grow) PLATE MOTIONS CAUSE EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOS, MOUNTAIN BUILDING AT PLATE BOUNDARIES PLATE TECTONICS MAKES EARTH WHAT IT IS - DIFFERENT FROM NEIGHBOR PLANETS (Mars, Venus, & Earth: 3 bears principle) PLATE MOTIONS ARE CRUCIAL FOR THE ORIGIN OF LIFE, ITS SURVIVAL, AND OUR CLIMATE PLATE MOTIONS PROVIDE RESOURCES AS WELL AS HAZARDS TO SOCIETY "CIVILIZATION EXISTS BY GEOLOGICAL CONSENT"
THE PLATES (= LITHOSPHERE) ARE THE COLD, STRONG OUTER BOUNDARY LAYER ("thin scum": 100 / 6371 km) MOVING OVER WEAKER ASTHENOSPHERE
NORMAL FAULTING
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Region under extension
Wasatch Fault
Salt Lake City, Utah
REVERSE FAULTING
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Region under compression
Offset fence showing 3.5 m of leftlateral strike-slip motion on San Andreas fault in 1906 San Francisco earthquake
CONVERGENT (SUBDUCTION)-
2001 NISQUALLY, WASHINGTON EARTHQUAKE (M 6.8, $2B damage) Within subducting Juan de Fuca plate
CASCADE VOLCANOES INDICATE JUAN DE FUCA PLATE SUBDUCTION BENEATH NORTH AMERICA
Mt. Mt St. Helens: Saint Helens May 18, eruption 1980 1980
USGS
Mount St. Helens as part of the new dome collapses. USDA Forest Service photograph by taken moments after a 3.2 magnitude earthquake triggered the event on July 18, 2005
www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh
TRANSFORM- San Andreas Fault System: Motion Between North American & Pacific Plates
1906 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE (Magnitude 7.8) ~ 4 m of slip on 450 km of San Andreas Fault ~2500 deaths, ~28,000 buildings destroyed (most by fire)
Eurasian plate
Thingvellir
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East Africa Rift - New Spreading Center Forms by Rifting Continental Crust
Africa is splitting up into Nubia (West Africa) and Somalia (East Africa)
2001 Eruption near Goma, Congo Along the East African Rift
India subducts beneath Burma microplate Earthquakes occur at plate interface along the Sumatra arc (Sunda trench)
Largest & most destructive earthquakes results from many years of accumulated motion
BETWEEN EARTHQUAKES: India subducts beneath Burma at about 20 mm/yr Fault interface is locked
SUMATRA TRENCH
INDIA
BURMA
Tsunami generated
EARTHQUAKE: Fault interface slips, overriding plate rebounds, releasing accumulated motion and generating tsunami
Stein & Wysession, 2003
Faults arent exactly periodic - intervals vary Crucial for assessing hazards
Generally speaking, the larger the rupture patch, the larger the earthquake magnitude.
Initial estimates from the aftershock distribution show the magnitude 9.0 SumatraAndaman Islands Earthquake ruptured a patch of fault roughly the size of California, and modeling seismic waves show that most of the slip occurred in the southern 400 km of the patch. For comparison, a magnitude 5 earthquake would rupture a patch roughly the size of New York City's Central Park.
NY Times
TSUNAMI GENERATED ALONG FAULT, WHERE SEA FLOOR DISPLACED, AND SPREADS OUTWARD
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Tsunami generated along fault, where sea floor displaced, and spreads outward
TSUNAMI WARNING
Deep ocean buoys can measure wave heights, verify tsunami and reduce false alarms
Because seismic waves travel much faster (km/s) than tsunamis, rapid analysis of seismograms can identify earthquakes likely to cause major tsunamis and predict when waves will arrive
PLATE TECTONICS IS DESTRUCTIVE TO HUMAN SOCIETY BUT CRUCIAL FOR HUMAN LIFE Plate boundary volcanism produces atmospheric gases (carbon dioxide CO2 ; water H2O) needed to support life and keep planet warm enough for life ("greenhouse" )
May explain how life evolved on earth (at midocean ridge hot springs)
Plate tectonics raises continents above sea level Plate tectonics produces mineral resources including fossil fuels
Press & Siever
The same geologic processes that make our planet habitable also make it dangerous