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EAS 10600 #M Group C
Hi Students from EAS 106 #M, this is Group C. You will be discussing here for the rest of the semester!
Admins:
Lab 3: Discovering Plate Boundaries Classifications
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Posted by Francesca Lingo on February 22, 2021 at 3:17 pmDiscussion Prompt – Due no later than Friday 2/26/2020 11:59 pm
Now that you have made and recorded your observations, write a brief summary to share your boundary classifications with your group. Your post should include 4 sets of classifications, one for each map, i.e., the V, E, T, and S boundaries. If you had lingering questions or observations you felt you could not properly classify, make note of those in this post.
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Volcano boundaries
V1-few to volcanoes V2- some volcanoes V3-a lot of volcanoes V4- volcano not on boundary
Earthquake boundaries
E1- Little or no earthquakes E2-Some earthquakes E3-High concentration of earthquakes E4- Earthquakes not on boundary
Elevation
T1- Elevation on plate boundary T2- Trench on plate boundary
Seafloor age
S1- Decreasing age towards boundary S2-Decreasing age towards boundary S3-Increasing age (not towards boundary)
Volcano boundaries
A.No
B.Many volcanoes form at the boundaries of tectonic plates.
C. V1-Australian plate and Indian plate- total lack of volcanoes
V2- North American plate- few are exist on the West coast in linear pattern.
V3-Pacific plate-a large number of volcanoes are expected.
Earthquake boundaries
A.Most of them
B.Most earthquakes occur near boundaries since it is where plate meets.
C. E1-transform plate boundaries
E2-divergent plate boundaries
E3-convergent plate boundaries
Elevation
A.Yes, there is a pattern how mountain chains and trenches are formed.
B. T1- Continent – Continent -expect high elevation
T2-Ocean-Contiental- expect a trench on the oceanic side of the boundaries.
Seafloor age
A.No, youngest seafloor is found at oceanic plate boundaries and older seafloor is found along the east coast of North America.
B.The aging on both sides of the boundaries appears to be same.
C. S1- fast spreading floor
S2- slow spreading floor
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by
BYUNGJUN SHIM.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by BYUNGJUN SHIM.
Volcano Boundaries:
No, volcanoes are not present at all boundaries.
Volcanoes form mostly at the boundaries of the earth’s tectonic plate.
V1– very few volcanoes
V2– few volcanoes
V3– large number of volcanoes
Earthquake boundaries:
Earthquake are present in mostly all boundaries.
Most earthquakes are witnessed along the plate boundaries.
E1– Transform plate boundaries
E2– Divergent plate boundaries (Spreading)
E3– Convergent plate boundaries (Colliding)
Elevation:
Yes, there are distinct pattern in elevation that occur at or near plate boundaries.
T1– high elevation on plate boundaries
T2– Trench on the boundary
Seafloor age:
No, the age of the seafloor is not same at all boundaries. The youngest is found at the mid-ocean ridge and the oldest is at the Mediterranean Sea region.
S1– fast spreading floor
S2– slow spreading floor
S3– intermediate-rate spreading
Not all the plate boundaries have volcanoes. Volcanoes are common along convergent and divergent plate boundaries, but are also found within lithospheric plates away from plate boundaries. Volcanoes occur on and near a plate boundary. The distribution of the volcanoes depends on the área along the Pacific Ocean basin, on the edges of the Pacific, Cocos and Nazca plates, their distribution is grouped similar to a swarm, in the same way in the upper limit of Australian Plate. In certain areas volcanoes are scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean basin, mainly on the edges of the Pacific, Cocos and Nazca plates. Volcanoes are scattered across the African Plate. In the Antartic Plate the volcanoes present have no discernible pattern. If there is a relationship of the location of the volcanoes in most of the boundaries, they are near or at the boundaries. They can occur on both sides of the plate boundaries. V1: Pacific Plate boundary north and upper northwest. The volcanoes are near the limit and located on the limit, along the northwest limit they do not have a defined distribution and in a section of the northern limit they have a linear distribution. V2: South American Plate western limit, the volcanoes are close to each other located on the limit of the plate, they show a distribution similar to a swarm, in certain areas of the limit there is no presence of volcanoes. V3: Eurassian Plate southeast limit, the volcanoes are located close to each other in the form of swarms.
Yes, earthquakes occur on all edges of the tectonic plates. The distribution of earthquakes varies at each plate boundary; Pacific Plate: In the upper part the earthquakes are grouped together, with depths between 0 to 700km. In the northwest limit many earthquakes occur at depths of 300 to 700km. In the lower part the presence of earthquakes decreases and their depths range from 0 to 33 km. African plate: linear pattern except in the upper limit, in the other limits the presence of earthquakes decreases and has no discernible distribution. The depths of earthquakes range from 0 to 33km. Australian Plate: north and northeast part linear and grouped pattern, with depths between or 700 km. In the following limits the presence of earthquakes decreases and does not have a discernible distribution, the depth of the earthquakes is from 0 to 33 km. South American Plate: on the eastern limit earthquakes occur grouped together with depths between 0 to 33km up to 700km, there is a greater presence of earthquakes with depths between 70 to 300km. Many earthquakes occur between Eursaian Plate and African Plate, with a depth of 0 to 33 km, 70 to 300km. E1: Eurasian plate. In the upper East limit there is no presence of earthquakes.
If there are patterns with different elevations that occur at and near a plate boundary. Different elevations are presented in: Caribbean Plate, Eurasian Plate southern limit, in the north of African Plate, in the Southwest of the North American Plate different levels of elevations are presented and a mountain range is shown. If there is a boundary where more than one change in elevation occurs, for example North American Plate to the northeast and at the southwestern boundary of the Eurasian plate. On most plate boundaries, elevation characteristics are linear, but on certain plates they are random as in Eurasian and North America. T1: Eurasian plate east limit, presents bathymetry changes from -2500 masl to 1600 masl. T2: Eurasian plate southern limit, presents bathymetry changes from -2500 masl to 4500 masl. T3: Eurasian plate south west limit, presents bathymetric changes from -3500 masl to 1600 masl. T4: North American Plate east limit, presents bathymetry changes from -3500 masl to 1600 masl.
The boundaries of all plates except Arabian Plate, Caribbean Plate show younger seafloor ages. The oldest seafloor age 180 million years is found at the northern boundary of the African Plate. In most limits the age of the seabed remains between 0 and 9.7 million years. In the north pacific plate the age of the seabed varies on one side of a boundary with bottoms ranging in age from 0 to 55.9 million years. In the northern Australian plate, on one side of a boundary, different ages of the seabed occur approximately between 33.1 and 83.5 million years. In North African plate different ages of the seabed are presented on one side from 0 to 180 million years. S1: in Pacific Plate is the youngest seabed. S2: in African Plate is the oldest seabed.
According to the images presented, it is clear that there are volcanoes along all plate boundaries. There are roughly 4 unique plate boundaries based on the characteristics of volcanoes.V1 is the small circular cluster of volcanoes such as on the nation of Greenland, V2 is the long linear chain of volcanoes on plate boundaries such as the Eurasia/Pacific Plates and the Eurasia/ Australian Plates, V3 is small clusters of less than 5 volcanoes, such as those in the Atlantic Ocean at the plate boundaries for South America and Africa, V4 is volcanoes that are not in a linear pattern but clustered together, such as the boundary of the North American and Pacific plates.
Based on the maps, there are earthquakes present at all plate boundaries and within plates as well. Through observations, five uniques plate boundaries were detected based on earthquake patterns. E1 is earthquakes in linear clusters along boundaries such as the North American and Pacific plates, E2- medium depth earthquakes in a large cluster such as the plates bordering in Alaska, E3-earthquakes in a large circular cluster, E4- earthquakes in a small circular cluster like in Greenland, E5, earthquakes in a generally linear pattern but not clustered.
When viewing the topography and bathymetry of Earth, a lot of unique features are visible when making close observations. On some continents such as Asia and South America there are mountain ranges at plate boundaries. In large bodies of water there are mid-ocean ridges that appear to be present. Near the Australia/Eurasia boundary there appears a large area of shallow water by the islands, with only a slight increase in elevation from sea level. At the Caribbean Plate, the boundary with the North American plate shows a strong drop in elevation around the Caribbean islands. From these features, four unique plate boundaries can be determined from these features. T1 represents boundaries that form a mountainous range on land (Himalayans and Andes). T2 represents boundaries that form high ocean ridges in bodies of water. T3 represents boundaries that have a shallow side and a deep side separated by an ocean ridge or island. T4 represents boundaries that form a slight ridge but have shallow water on both sides of the boundary.
After looking at the map of the seafloor, it is evident that the age of the seafloor is not the same at all boundaries. The seafloor is usually younger at the boundaries, while the seafloor becomes older the farther away it migrates. There are roughly three unique plate boundaries. S1 corresponds to boundaries in which the age of the seafloor is changing at the same rate on both sides of the boundaries. S2 is boundaries where the age of the seafloor is changing on only one side of the plate boundary. S3 is boundaries where the age of the seafloor is changing drastically on one side of the plate boundary.
1.
- The Volcanoes are not present on all boundaries, they are located on the boundaries where the land meets the plate boundaries mostly, as well as they are spread out throughout landmasses mostly.
- Volcanoes for the most part is located close to the plate boundary; they occur in a non-linear pattern which occurs along most of the plate boundary for the most part along the west coast of the Americas. Moving east the pattern of volcanoes grows more unpredictable as they are more spread through several landmasses. They fall into a pattern once more when looking at the East side of Asia along the plate boundary next to Japan. Their relation to the plate boundary follows mostly along the border and holds through even for volcanoes that fall into landmasses themselves. Typically, they are likely to follow on side of the boundary with a greater bias depending on there the plate boundary meets the land mass.
c.
V1- North American plate through the Atlantic Ocean, where there exist less volcanoes, through the ocean but a larger concentration on the west coast of the North American plate.
V2- Pacific Plate- The volcanoes exist, mainly exist along the plate boundary, in more concentrated amounts and is within the plate itself where the plate boundary doesn’t actively exist.
V3- South American Plate- Volcanoes exist on or near the plate boundary, which remains true to the pattern that locates most of the volcanoes n the plates boundary.
2.
- The boundaries presented on the map indicate depth of the earthquake and are presented on most of the plate boundaries. In this map there is large correlation between plate boundaries and the concentration of the amount of plate boundaries, but the depth of the earthquake being more dependent on the location of the plate boundaries.
- Earthquakes mainly occur on or near the plate boundaries, larger in concentrations that are found throughout the coasts of the plates that fall in the ocean, which are very deep. The concentrations of earthquakes found closer to landmasses are greater and have greater depths compared to earthquakes on plate boundaries in ocean locations.
c.
E1- North American Plate boundary- through the western side of North America we can identify Sand Andreas Fault, which viably denotes the amount of earthquake activity which also explains the intensity of the red indications on the west side of the northern American plate boundary.
E2- Southern American Plate boundary- We see the plate boundary that forms the mid-Atlantic ridge on the east side of the plate boundary which explains the movement of the plates and low amount of earthquake activity which is noted by the map (through its few red dots)
E3- Eurasian Plate boundary- Through this boundary which is part of the ring of fire on the eastern side going towards japan we can see the high intensity in both depth and number of earthquakes that have occurred, which is most notably due to the pattern that the plate boundary meets the land at this specific boundary.
3.
- The map given displays the elevations of different mountain ranges and valleys on land and as for the ocean displays the changes in elevations located in the tranches. This is made readily apparent as we can see near the plate boundaries that there is an increase of elevations on land. We can look at example such as the mid-Atlantic ridge and on land the san Andrea’s fault near the west coast of the northern plate. The notable plate pattern being that there are changes in elevation overall on or near some plate boundaries.
b.
T1- Indian plate Boundary- Through the topographical map we can notice that Himalayas located on the Indian plate boundary north of India is coincidentally a plate boundary and happens to form a large mountain range north of Africa.
T2- Eurasian plate boundary- The alps are denoted on this map located on the collision of the African and Eurasian plate; we can denote this plate boundary actively where we see the color shift of the map go from yellow to a light purple where the two borders meet.
T3- Southern American plate boundary- the Andes mountain ranges are denoted through this plate boundary on this map on the west side of the Southern American plate boundary. In this map it is denoted from the color shift from green to a dark yellow along the length of south America which denotes the Andes therefore demonstrating the relationship.
4.
- The seafloor is not the same at all boundaries but has a pattern of the age of newer seafloor at or near the plate boundaries. The youngest sea floor exists on locations such as the Mid – Atlantic Ridge, which is a plate boundary that exist on or near the seafloor.
- The pattern is more consistent along on some of the boundaries as the boundary locations that are near the seafloor, where there is consistently newer seafloor found near the plate boundary as opposed to the seafloor that increase in age as you move away from the plate boundaries.
S1- The Northern American plate boundary- We can observe the upper half of the Mid Atlantic ridge on the east side of this plate boundary, which most accurately denotes the new seafloor rooting from this plate boundary.
S2-The southern American plate boundary- Through this plate boundary we can observe the bottom half of the mid- Atlantic ridge shown by the map which denotes the new sea floor rooting from this plat boundary on the eastern side.
S3- The Pacific Plate boundary- Although this plate boundary is active on land, the map denotes the under-water sea floor activity to fall short in comparison to the rest of the plat boundaries as this plate boundary has shown the least amount of new sea floor on the eastern side of japan.
1a. No. Volcanoes aren’t present on all boundaries.
1b. Volcanoes are found on the Pacific, North American, South American, African, and Australian plates. Each plate has a contribution to the overall map. The North American and South American plate boundaries are covered by volcanoes with a concentration on the western boundary. The Australian plate boundary also has volcanos and is concentrated on the northern boundary. The European plate is concentrated in the southeast. The African plate and European plate have volcanos randomly scattered within their boundaries.
1c. In my opinion, there are 5 unique plate boundaries. V1 is the cluster of volcanos within Africa on the African plate. V2 is the cluster of volcanos within Iceland. V3 is the linear pattern of volcanos along the North American and South American plate boundaries. V4 is the random cluster of volcanos within and on the European plate boundary. V5 are the volcanos that line the Australian and Pacific plate boundaries.
2a. Yes. I see earthquakes present in all the boundaries when compared to the plate boundary map.
2b. There are earthquakes in the Pacific, North American, South American, African, European, and Australian plate boundaries. These earthquakes occur on the boundary. Severe earthquakes appear on the western boundaries of the North/South American, North African, and southeast European plate boundaries. The rest of the boundaries have earthquakes as well but not with the intensity of the mentioned plates.
2c. Since earthquakes occur along every plate boundary, I will classify them in 4 unique ways. E1 are the boundaries where low intensity earthquakes occur. This includes the majority of plate boundaries located in the ocean except the Australian and Pacific plates. E2 are highly clustered and weak earthquakes. This is seen in the southern European plate boundary. E3 are classified as medium and run along the North/South American plate boundaries. E4 are the most severe earthquakes. They occur along the Australian and Pacific plate boundaries.
3a. A pattern is seen in the North American and European plates. The elevation along the boundaries varies from 0 to -100 meters while the actual landmass goes up to 100 meters. The plate boundaries 4500 meters in elevation align as well. The western North American plate boundary and southern European plate boundary has an elevation of about 1600 meters.
3b. In my opinion, there are 3 unique boundaries. T1 are boundaries located within the ocean. They are seen as ridges with the surrounding ocean having a lower elevation. T2 is the southern European plate boundary. We can see mountain ranges are located here as the elevation is the highest. T3 are the Australian and Pacific plate boundaries. The lowest elevations are found here hinting at seafloor trenches.
4a. The youngest seafloor is in the western North and South American plate boundaries. Intermediately aged seafloor occurs on the western African/European and western Pacific boundaries. The southern Australian boundary has relatively young seafloor level while the oldest seafloor is located in the eastern Pacific plate.
4b. In the North/South American, Nazca and western Pacific plate boundaries, the seafloor age increases from east to west. The western African/European, eastern South American and North American plates age from the boundary to their respective inner portions.
4c. S1 are all plates that age at the center to the boundary. The majority of plates are oldest at their boundaries, an example being the North American plate boundary. S2 are plates are youngest at their boundaries. This is seen at the Australian and Pacific plate boundaries. They are youngest at their boundaries but age as you move further away.
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