The jigsaw-puzzle fit of continents

bordering the Atlantic Ocean is a

feature noted by scientists since
the late sixteenth century. From
this observation, Alfred Wegener in
1915 postulated a former
supercontinent, which he called
Pangaea. Wegener cited as
additional evidence the similarity of
geologic features on opposite sides
of the Atlantic. The matchup of
ancient crystalline rocks is shown
coloured in adjacent regions of
South America and Africa and of
North America and Europe (from
Grotzinger et al. 2007).

Geología, S. Rosas

Fossils of the late Paleozoic reptile Mesosaurus are found in South America and Africa and
nowhere else in the world. If Mesosaurus could swim across the South Atlantic Ocean, it
could have crossed other oceans and should have spread more widely. That it did not
suggests that South America and Africa must have been joined at that time (from Press &
Siever 2000).

Geología, S. Rosas

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Earth’s plates today. Note that plates and
continents are not identical. The South
American Plate, for example, is more
extensive than the landmass that is the South
American continent (from Press & Siever
2000 and Grotzinger et al. 2007).
Geología, S. Rosas

Rifting and
seafloor
spreading along
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
create a mid-ocean
volcanic mountain
chain and a coincident
earthquake belt (from
Press & Siever 2000
and Grotzinger et al.
2007).

Initiate of rifting
and plate
separation within
a continent.
Characteristic features
are rift valleys, with
multiple normal faults,
volcanism, and
earthquakes (from
Press & Siever 2000
and Grotzinger et al.
2007). Geología, S. Rosas

2
 The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a
divergent plate boundary,
surfaces above sea level in
Iceland. The cracklike rift valley
filled with new volcanic rocks
indicates that plates are being
pulled apart. [Gudmundur E.
Sigvaldason, Nordic
Volcanological Institute.] (from
Grotzinger et al. 2007).

Geología, S. Rosas

Rifting and
seafloor
spreading along
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
create a mid-ocean
volcanic mountain
chain and a coincident
earthquake belt (from
Press & Siever 2000
and Grotzinger et al.
2007).

Initiate of rifting
and plate
separation within
a continent.
Characteristic features
are rift valleys, with
multiple normal faults,
volcanism, and
earthquakes (from
Press & Siever 2000
and Grotzinger et al.
2007). Geología, S. Rosas

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(from Grotzinger et al. 2007).

Geología, S. Rosas

Subduction of an ocean plate

beneath another ocean plate
forms a volcanic arc.

Subduction of an ocean plate at a

continental margin creates a deep-sea
trench, a volcanic belt at the margin of
the continent, and shallow- and deep-
focus earthquakes.

A continent - continent plate

collision creates multiple
thrusting and folding, double
thickening of the continental
crust, and high mountains. (from
Press & Siever 2000).
Geología, S. Rosas

4
On the seafloor, plates move in opposite horizontal directions across a transform boundary
between offset sections of a divergent boundary (ridge rift) and in the same direction across
other segments of the transform. A scarp can occur because the transform fault juxtaposes
older seafloor with younger seafloor. Older seafloor colder and contracts, sinking to a lower
topographic level than younger seafloor (from Press & Siever 2000).
Geología, S. Rosas

The view northwest along the San Andreas fault in between the Pacific Plate on the left and
the North American Plate on the right. Notice how movement on the fault has offset
transform fault, forming a portion of the sliding boundary the streams flowing across it.
[John Shelton.] (from Grotzinger et al. 2007).

Geología, S. Rosas

5
Several plates and the boundaries between them as they exist today. Seafloor
spreading in the Atlantic (a), Pacific (b), and Indian (d) oceans is depicted, along with
plate collisions of the types ocean – ocean (Japan, b), ocean –
continent (South America, b, and Turkey, c), and continent – continent
(Indian, d). (from Press & Siever 2000). Geología, S. Rosas

Bands of As plate separation

magnetized crust continues, the newly
form successively magnetized crust is
as each new piece pushed out on both
of seafloor is sides and gradually
intruded, cools, and moves outward with
becomes the separating
magnetized in the plates.
normal or reversed
direction of the
magnetic field
existent at that time.

The pattern of
normal (+) and
reversed (-)
magnetic
bands on the
seafloor follows
the succession of
magnetic
reversals over
time worked out
on land. Geología, S. Rosas

6
Age of seafloor crust. Each colored band represents a span of time covering the age of the crust within
the band.The boundaries between bands are contours of equal age called isochrons. Isochrons give the
age of the seafloor in millions of years since its creation at mid-ocean ridges. Light gray indicates land.
Dark gray indicates shallow water over continental shelves. Mid-ocean ridges, along which new seafloor
is extruded, coincide with the youngest seafloor (from Grotzinger et al. 2007). Geología, S. Rosas

Relative velocities (in centimeters per year) and directions of plate separation and
convergence. Opposed arrowheads indicate convergence. Diverging arrowheads indicate
plate separation at ocean ridges. Parallel arrowheads, as along the San Andreas fault in
California, indicate transform faults, where plates slide past each other. Spreading is fastest
between the Pacific and Nazca plates and slowest along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the
North American and Eurasian plates (from Press & Siever 2000).
Geología, S. Rosas

7
 Plate movements have led
to the northward drift of the
continents and the opening
of the Atlantic ocean. The
central Atlantic, the
Caribbean, and the Gulf of
Mexico began to form about
200 million years ago, in
Triassic time, when Pangaea
began to break up and
Africa and South America
drifted away from North
America. The South Atlantic
opened about 150 million
years ago with the
separation of South America
from Africa. As the
continents drifted apart,
they also migrated in a
northerly direction to their
present positions. Note that
the equator passed through
the southern parts of the
United States and Europe in
Triassic time (from Press &
Siever 2000).
Geología, S. Rosas

Signals from GPS satellites can be used to monitor plate motions (from
Grotzinger et al. 2007).

Geología, S. Rosas

8
N S

N S

Asia India

Geología, S. Rosas

A highly schematic and simplified representation of how ocean crust might form at mid-
ocean ridges. A hot mush of crystals and melt (red) rises from the mantle at the axis of a
mid-ocean ridge. The melt is concentrated in a small shallow lens (yellow) from which dikes
of magma erupt repeatedly to form seafloor pillow lavas and underlying sheeted dikes. The
mush cools to form the gabbro layer of the crust as the plates spread apart (from Press &
Siever 2000).
Geología, S. Rosas

9
 The development of
sedimentary basins on a rifted
continental margin. A rift
develops in Pangaea as hot
mantle materials upwell and the
ancient continent stretches and
thins. Volcanics and Triassic
nonmarine sediments are
deposited in the faulted valleys
(a). Seafloor spreading begins
(b). The lithosphere cools and
contracts under the receding
continental margins, which
subside below sea level.
Evaporites, deltaic deposits, and
carbonates (c) are deposited
and then covered by Jurassic
and Cretaceous sediments
derived from continental erosion
(d). The Atlantic margins of
Europe, Africa, and North and
South America have histories
similar to this one (from Press &
Siever 2000).

Geología, S. Rosas

Rock assemblages associated with the

collision of two ocean plates and
subduction (from Press & Siever 2000).

Geología para Ingenieros, S. Rosas Geología, S. Rosas

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Rock assemblages associated with ocean –
continent plate collisions and subduction: Ocean
trenches, mélange deposits, magmatic belts,
metamorphism, and volcanism. The drawing is
not to scale; the thickness of the lithosphere is
about 100 km, the depth of the ocean trench is
about 10 km, and the distance from trench to
magmatic belt is between 300 and 400 km (from
Press & Siever 2000). Geología, S. Rosas

(a) A plate carrying a continent is subducted under a plate with a continent at its leading
edge. (b) The two continents collide. The continent at left breaks into several thrust sheets,
thickening the continental crust and raising a high mountain range. Other rocks associated
with plate convergence are caught up in the collision zone: Magmatic intrusions, deformed
and metamorphosed shelf and deep-water sediments, and ophiolite fragments. The Tertiary
period collision of India and Asia is an example (from Press & Siever 2000).

Geología, S. Rosas

11
Accretion of a microplate terrane. An
oceanic island arc or a fragment of
continent is carried into a plate
collision zone. Instead of being
subducted, it is welded onto the
overriding plate. Because the
fragment may have originated
thousands of kilometers away, its
rock assemblages differ from those
of the surrounding geological terrain
(from Press & Siever 2000).

Geología, S. Rosas

Geología, S. Rosas

12
Assembly of Pangaea. One possible reconstruction of the changing positions of the
continents from the late Proterozoic to the early Permian (from Press & Siever 2000).
Geología, S. Rosas

Four competing driving mechanisms of plate tectonics (from Press & Siever 2000).
Geología, S. Rosas

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