Earth Science

Lecture Outline #2: Earth’s Oceans, Plate Tectonics and

Earth's Ocean Floor

The oceans of Earth

Earth’s Oceans

Views of the Northern and

Southern hemispheres

Plate Tectonics

Earth’s Tectonic Plates

Mesosaurus Fossil Remnants

Matching Mountain

Ranges

Evidence of Glaciation

Convection

Diverging Plates

Creation of a New Ocean

BasinAtlantic Ocean

following Pangaea

Earth’s Diverging Boundaries

Africa’s Red Sea

Convergent Boundaries

Oceanic-Oceanic Convergence

Oceanic-Continental Convergence

Continental-Continental Convergence

Origin of the Himalaya’s

Transform Faults

“Hot Spots”

200 million years ago

Ocean Floor

Echo sounder

Multibeam sonar

Mapping the ocean floor

Three major topographic units of the ocean floor • Continental margins • Ocean basin floor • Mid-ocean ridge

Continental Passive Margins

Continental Slope with Submarine Canyons

Submarine Canyon

Abyssal (Deep Sea) Fans

Turbidity Current

Deep Ocean Trenches

Loihi

Seamounts and Guyots

Development of a Coral Atoll

Bora Bora

Oceanic Ridge

Hydrothermal Vents

Mid Ocean Ridge

Major topographic divisions of the North Atlantic Ocean

Ocean Floor Sediments• Terrigenous Sediment

• Biogenous Sediments

• Hydrogenous Sediment

Turbidity currents

Features of a passive continental margin

An active continental margin

Distribution of marine sediments

End