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Geology and Soils GEO 100 Notes
Plate Tectonics and Continental Drifting

1. Early Workers
   1. Antonio Snider-Pellegrini (French 1858) Boundaries

   2. Frank B. Taylor (American 1908)

   3. Alfred Wegener (German 1915) Boundaries & Paleoclimates - The Supercontinent: "Pangaea" or "Pangea"
      1. Laurasia - Northern Supercontinent

      2. Gondwanaland - Southern Supercontinent

2. Continents
   1. Free Board of Continents

3. Structure and Rock Type
   1. For Example: South America and Africa

   2. For Example: California and Mexico

4. Age of Ocean Basins
   1. Jurassic Period (150 million years B P) - Earliest Sediment on the Atlantic Ocean Plate

5. Pateontologic Evidence
   1. Glossopteris Flora: Seed Fern of South America, South Africa, Australia, India, and Antarctica

   2. Mesosaurus: Aquatic Reptile, Late Permian of South Africa, Antarctica, and Brazil

   3. Lystrosaurus: Fresh Water Mammal-Like Reptile, Triassic of South Africa, Antarctica, South America, and Asia

   4. Amphibians: Fresh Water, Devoman of Greenland, and Antarctica

6. Ancient Glaciation
   1. Late Paleozoic Glaciation (300 million years B.P.) of South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica

7. Paleoclimates
   1. Coal Deposits in Antarctica

   2. Ancient Evaporite Deposits that are now 30^o North and South of the Equator

8. Paleomagnetism
   1. Magnetosphere
      1. Inclination and Dip

      2. 10³ to 6 X 10⁴ km Above Earth With Trapped Ions and Charged Particles

      3. Secular Changes (over long periods of time)

   2. NRM - Natural Remnant Magnetism
      1. TRM - Thermal Remnant Magnetism

      2. IM - Induced Magnetism

      3. DRM - Depositional Remnant Magnetism

   3. Polar Wandering

   4. Magnetic Reversals
      1. Marine Magnetic Anomolies

      2. Vine - Matthews Hypothesis: The Cosmic Recording Head

   5. Sea Floor Spreading And Continental Drifting
      1. Age of Atlantic Ocean

      2. Crustal Rock in Mid Atlantic Ridge

      3. Ocean Trenches

      4. Latest Symmetry of Magnetic Reversals

      5. Measured Movement
         1. North Atlantic: 1 cm/yr

         2. South Atlantic: 2.3 cm/yr

      6. Driving Force - Hess: Convection Cells in the Mantle

      7. Some Structure
         1. Lithosphere

         2. Aesthenosphere

   6. Plate Boundaries
      1. Divergent Boundaries: Spreading Centers

      2. Transform Fault

      3. Convergent Boundaries: Subduction Zone
         1. Ocean to Ocean

         2. Continent to Ocean

         3. Continent to Continent

      4. Backarc Spreading

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