Implication of Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics is an essential theory for scientist who studies the earth, and the ocean. The understanding of plate tectonics helps us understand the past, and move forward into the future. Through the understanding of plate tectonics, scientists have learnt where to look for natural resources such as oil and natural gas (Ross, 1995). Plate tectonics is a relatively new idea, built on older concepts.

The history of plate tectonics dates back to 1965. It was then, when J. Tuzo Wilson combined the ideas of continental drifting and sea floor spreading (Garrison, 1995). The idea of continental drifting idea was first suggested back in 1596 by the Dutch map maker Abraham Ortelius in his work Thesaurus Geographicus (Kious and Tilling, 1996). It wasn’t until 1912 when Alfred Wegener proposed the actual theory of continental drifting. Wegener provided evidence to support his theory. His evidence included the puzzle-like match that the shorelines of the continents had. This thought led to the supercontinent of Pangaea, and the ocean surrounding it was Panthalassa. These names are both derived of Greek words: Pan meaning all; Gaea meaning Earth; and Thaslassa meaning ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is growing larger and the Pacific smaller because of plate tectonics (http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/november01_index.php?l=1). It is through the divergent boundaries located in the Atlantic that continue to produce new crust, thus spreading the sea floor. While the Atlantic is spreading, the Pacific is growing smaller with the help of the convergent boundaries.

Convergent boundaries are boundaries where there are subduction zones. Plates along this type of boundary collide, and then one is subducted and destroyed. There are three types of convergent boundaries. They are: ocean to ocean, ocean to continent, and continent to continent. A popular convergent, continent to continent boundary would be the Himalayas.

In 1965 J. Tuzo Wilson brought the ideas of continental drift and sea floor spreading together to for the idea of plate tectonics, building off of the initial idea that there was one supercontinent that broke apart 225-200 billion years ago, through the process of sea floor spreading. In Wilson’s theory, the Earth’s lithosphere was made up of several plates, which are floating on the asthenosphere (Garrison, 1995). These plates were defined by boundaries created by earthquake and volcanic activity. (See Figure 1. and Figure 2.). From figure 2, one can see that the Earth is broken up into about a dozen plates. The plates are thin, approxiamately 43 to 65 miles thick. The motion of the plates are driven by the con

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