Plate tectonics

A. Terms that should mean something to you
Related words are grouped together

Crust Mantle Core Buoyancy Isostatic      equilibrium Basement Sediment	Lithosphere Asthenosphere Cross-section Aerial view Lateral extent Vertical extent Morphology	Geothermal      gradient Convection Radioactive decay Potential energy	Seafloor spreading Midocean ridges Transform faults Fracture zones
Subduction Trenches Island arcs Volcanic arcs Benioff zone	Continental shelf Continental slope Continental rise Abyssal plain Abyssal hills Submarine fans      and canyons	Oceanic islands Plateaus Guyots Atolls	Evidence Hotspot Apparent polar      wander Paleomagnetism Hotspot motion Age distribution      of sediments Terranes

B. Questions you should be able to answer
1. What is the shape of the seafloor?
2. What are its major features?
3. How did each of the major features form?
4. What is plate tectonics?
5. What defines a single plate? 6. What makes the tectonic plates move?
7. What's the source of energy for plate tectonics?
8. How do you know it's hot inside?
9. Is it molten all the way through?
10. Why is it hot?
11. Which oceans are growing new seafloor?
12. What will eventually happen to the Pacific?
13. Will seafloor spreading end?
14. Why will seafloor spreading continue in a new place?
15. What determines whether energy will move on its own?
16. How do we know that plates actually move?
17. What are key differences between continental drift and plate tectonics?
18. Why were earthquakes unexpected at depths greater than 100 km?
19. Why are plate reconstruction movies usually limited to the last 180 million years?
20. Why is the Hawaiian-Emperor island chain not an island arc?
21. What is a paleomagnetic anomaly?
22. Why is the seafloor deeper away from the midocean ridge?
23. Why is the San Andreas Fault a transform fault?
24. Where is the edge of the continents in southern California?
25. What does a cross-section of seafloor bathymetry look like in the east-west direction across the Pacific vs. the Atlantic?

C. On the web - General references
Plate tectonics
General information with nice diagrams.
University of North Dakota, Volcano World

This Dynamic Earth
Online edition of U.S.G.S book by Kious and Tilling. Static figures, but they're very nice.
W.J. Kious and R.I. Tilling, U.S. Geological Survey

D. On the web - Current topics
1. Is Seattle in danger because of plate tectonics?
2. Living with the San Andreas Transform Fault
3. New real estate in Hawaii - Loihi

E. Notes and diagrams
1.    Shape of the seafloor
2.    Shape of Mars
2.    Age of the oceanic crust
3.    Major tectonic plates
4.    Differences between oceanic and continental crust
5.    Hypsographic curve - see Figure 4.6 on page 97 of your text.
6.    Relationship between physical state and chemical composition terms
7.    Seafloor spreading and subduction processes
8.    Earth's fastest spreading rate
9.    Movies of convection
10.  Fracture zones vs. transform faults
11.  Darwin's problem - seafloor sinking
12.  Modern plate motion and GPS
13.  Sediment thickness
14.  Satellite altimetry
15.  USGS multibeam mapping in Pacific
16.  Modeling geomagnetic reversals
17.  Plate reconstruction movies
               Plates project
               University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
               The Paleogeographic Atlas Project
               University of Chicago
               Paleomap Project
               Chris Scotese
               Animated Tectonic History (western North America)
               Tanya Atwater, UCSB
               Large movie, will take time to load
18.    Geologic Time Scale
19.    1999 Geologic Time