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EAS 10600 #M Group F

Hi Students from EAS 106 #M, this is Group F. You will be discussing here for the rest of the semester!

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Lab 3: Discovering Plate Boundaries Classifications

  • Discussion 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.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • 1A) Yes, although there may be very few, it seems to be that there is at least one or two volcanoes present at some point along every plate boundary.

    1B) Volcanoes seem to be much more frequent and densely packed along the ocean-continental plate boundaries. Typically occurring on the continental side of the boundary in a mostly linear fashion mirroring the boundary. Although there are some occurrences along the ocean-ocean and continent-continent plate boundaries, these seem to be much less frequent and without much of a discernible pattern other than the fact that they occur very close to the boundary itself.

    1C)

    -V1: Ocean-Continental boundaries can expect a large amount of volcanoes in a linear fashion on continental side of boundary.

    -V2: Ocean-Ocean boundaries can expect very few volcanoes but in very close proximity to the boundaries with no discernible pattern.

    -V3: Continent-Continent boundaries can expect very few volcanoes along these boundaries as well with no discernible pattern, but the few that do exist also hover near the boundary.

     

    2A)Yes, similar to volcanoes it seems there are some boundaries that are significantly more active than others in terms of earthquakes, but every boundary has at least a few indicators for earthquakes present somewhere along the boundary.

    2B)The earthquakes seem to occur in a more clustered pattern on both sides as well as on top of the boundaries. It also appears that on the ocean-continental boundaries deeper quakes tend to occur on the continental side of the boundary. The continent-continent boundaries look to have very little pattern to them, with some having large amounts of quakes at varying depths and some with very few at all. While the ocean-ocean plate boundaries have comparatively very little density of activity but occur consistently and directly on the boundary.

    2C)

    -E1 Ocean-Continental boundaries can expect a large amount of earthquakes in a cluster pattern, with deeper quakes on continental side of boundary.

    -E2: Ocean-Ocean boundaries can expect few, spaced out earthquakes along these boundaries, but seem to line the majority of the boundary directly on top of it.

    -E3: Continent-Continent boundaries can expect large amounts of variation on these boundaries with some boundaries having many quakes at varying depths.

    -E4: Also Continent-Continent, but some of these continental boundaries have so few quakes that it seemed fit to give it it’s own category, very inactive in comparison to other continental boundaries.

     

    3A) There seems to be a fairly consistent pattern along the continent-continent plate boundaries that there are large mountain ranges and a higher elevation in general. Along most of the ocean-ocean boundaries there seems to be areas of higher elevation on both sides of the boundary but only immediately next to it, it quickly seems to get much deeper as you move away from the boundary in either direction. And along the ocean-continent boundaries there seems to be deep trenches on the oceanic side of the boundary, with some areas of slightly higher elevation on the continental side but not consistently. All these features appear to follow a general pattern mirroring the boundaries themselves, but mountain ranges especially can extend deep into a continent, well away from the boundary.

    3B)

    -T1: Ocean-Continental can expect a deep trench on the oceanic side of the boundary, with some of the continental sides being slightly elevated, but not consistently.

    -T2: Ocean-Ocean can expect areas of slightly higher elevation immediately on both sides of the boundary, followed by deeper ocean floor as you move away from the boundary.

    -T3: Continent-Continent areas of much higher elevation as well as large mountain ranges on both sides of the boundary, sometimes extending far into the continent away from the boundary.

     

    4A)Not exactly “the same” but the seafloor age seems to be similar along the boundaries. It is youngest along the mid-ocean boundaries and along the ocean continent boundaries. It is oldest in the middle of the oceanic plates and as you move away from the ocean-ocean boundaries, before starting to get younger again if approaching a continental boundary.

    4B)On the mid-ocean boundaries the age seems to increase uniformly on both sides of the boundary as you move away from it. On the ocean-continental boundaries there appears to be younger seafloor closer to the boundaries, but not in as uniform of a manner as the ocean-ocean boundaries.

    4C)

    -S1: Mid-Ocean boundaries have very young seafloor on both sides of the boundary, that gets increasingly older as you move away from the boundary.

    -S2:Ocean-Continent boundaries can expect younger seafloor as you move toward the boundary.

     

    1a. No, they are present at all but not all of the boundaries. 

     

    1b. They are more densely concentrated along some boundaries and occur in linear or curved patterns. At the boundaries where the volcano distribution is most concentrated and linear, the volcanoes occur on top of the boundary. The volcanoes that are more spread out from each other are near but not on a boundary and are more isolated. Boundaries that are on or near continents have more packed clusters of volcanoes like at the Nazca Plate but the ones that occur in the ocean like between the South American and African Plates have less volcanoes. 

     

    1c.

    V1: The boundary between the Eurasian and North American plates cuts through the middle of Iceland where there is a cluster of volcanoes in one spot but they don’t follow a linear pattern. 

    V2: On the Pacific plate there is a cluster of volcanoes that are occurring in a linear pattern in the ocean, not near a continent. 

    V3: There is a volcano over a spot where there seems to be a whole in the Antarctic Plate, but this is in the middle of the ocean and far from the plate boundary. 

    V4: Between the African and Arabian Plates there are less volcanoes where this boundary line is between two continents. 

     

    2a. Yes, but there are less earthquakes at some boundaries compared to others. 

     

    2b. Most earthquakes are present in curved lines at or near the plate boundaries. The plate boundaries that occur at continents have many more earthquakes than occur at the plate boundaries that are in the ocean. They are more spread out in the ocean than they are on coast lines and they are mostly all occurring on the boundary line. There is no consistent pattern for the depth of the earthquakes. 

     

    2c. 

    E1: There is a cluster of earthquakes at the southern tip of the South American plate which is in the ocean. These earthquakes are not connected to the rest of the earthquakes lining the plate boundary. 

    E2: Hawaii has a large cluster of volcanoes occurring all over the island instead of being concentrated around the boundary line. 

    E3: In Central America there are many earthquakes occurring in the middle of the continent near and away from the plate boundary.  

     

    3a. There is higher elevation at or near the plate boundaries. There are some mountain chains near some, but not all boundaries and at the boundaries in the ocean there is lower elevation. The features are linear in the ocean but more clustered and random at the continents.  

     

    3b. 

    T1: To the right of Iceland the bathymetry drops dramatically around one spot, but this is not occurring in a linear way on the line of the plate boundary.

    T2: Where there is a smaller plate in the Antarctic Plate, there is an area with a less deep sea floor, while the sea floor is dropping at most boundary lines.

    T3: North of the North American and the Eurasian Plates the seafloor is less deep in a wide area as opposed to only around the plate boundaries. 

     

    4a. No the seafloor is not the same age at all boundaries. It is youngest around the Pacific and Australian plates and oldest around the Pacific boundary and near the north west coast of Africa and south east coast of North America.

     

    4b. Age increases as distance away from the boundary increases on both sides.

     

    4c. 

    S1: The seafloor age stays young around the australian plate, but the younger sea floor covers a larger area than just near the plate boundary and only gets older in a small spot.  

    S2: On the left side of the Pacific Plate the section of the sea floor that is younger on the boundary is broken into smaller parts rather than a continuous line and to the right of these small spots of young sea floor, the sea floor suddenly becomes the oldest seafloor. 

    1a) No, all volcanoes are not present on all boundaries.

    1b) Volcanoes that occur near or at a plate boundary are distributed in a linear pattern. There are many volcanoes occurring in a small area, therefore, the dots look like lines. Although there are a lot of volcanoes in a small area, they are spread out all throughout the map. There is no distinct pattern. The volcanoes occur mostly on one side of the boundary. Most volcanoes are along the side of the continents.

    1c) V1 – The Indian Plate doesn’t have a concentrated amount of volcanoes on its plate boundary on the continents like the other plate boundaries.

    V2  – The Euroasian plate boundary going through Iceland has a cluster of volcanoes all in one spot unlike the other plate boundaries where it is mainly linear. Also, the volcanoes appear on both sides of the plate boundary. 

     

    2a) Earthquakes are present at all boundaries. Some are densely packed while others have a few and are scattered.

    2b) The earthquakes that occur at or near a plate boundary are distributed along a line and are densely packed. They occur in a linear pattern. There are many earthquakes occurring along the coastlines of the continent so they are spread out, however, there are many in that area as the dots look like lines because of the abundance of them. There is a pattern in terms that there are clustered earthquakes along the plate boundaries near the continents. Also, the earthquakes near the ocean’s plate boundaries are a lot more spread out and a lot less, with the exception of a few cases. The earthquakes are directly on or near the plate boundaries, mostly on the continent side. The depth of the earthquakes are not the same at all locations near the boundary. A pattern that is present is that there are many earthquake dots at the edges of the continents near a plate boundary. 

    2c) E1 – There are a lot of earthquakes bunched on the sides of the plate boundaries that are on the continents, however, the left side of the Eurasian Plate has a significantly less amount of earthquakes on land.

    E2 – The Pacific Plate has a large cluster of earthquakes on the oceans, whereas the rest of the plate boundaries have significantly less amounts of earthquakes on the ocean compared to land. 

    E3- At the boundary where the Eurasian and African Plate meet, there is a large cluster of earthquakes well above the African plate whereas for the other boundaries, the earthquakes are concentrated at the plate boundaries and have a few dots dispersed.

     

    3a) At or near the plate boundary, the elevation seems to be higher than its surroundings, however there are a few exceptions. The plate boundaries in the middle of the ocean are elevated more than the ocean surrounding it. Some areas of the plate boundaries on or near the continents have high elevations, therefore, there are mountain chains. These seem to occur on one side of the plate tectonics. However, on some plate tectonics that are bordering a continent, there seems to be trenches on the oceanic side of the plate boundary. On the other side of the plate boundary, near the continents, there is an increase in elevation. There seems to be a general pattern where the plate boundaries are typically more elevated than its surroundings.

    3b) T1 – Typically, there are higher elevations at the plate boundaries compared to its surroundings, however, for parts of the Pacific plate, the boundary is lower than its surroundings. The Pacific plate goes to a deeper elevation than the rest of the map on the side opposite to the continent.

    T2 – The elevation of the plate boundaries are fairly consistent on all parts of the map except for the parts where it goes through a continent. This is seen on the plate boundary that goes through Iceland, where the elevation goes through many ranges in that portion.

     

    4a) The age of the seafloor is not the same at all boundaries, however, most of the seafloor around the boundaries are young. The seafloor is the youngest at the mid-ocean ridges, near the plate boundaries and is the oldest the farther they go away from the plate boundaries. 

    4b) There is a pattern for most cases, where the seafloor aging seems fairly symmetric on both sides of the plate boundaries. However, this symmetry is not seen on seafloor aging near the continents. 

    4c) S1 – The seafloor aging near the Pacific Plate is inconsistent in the sense that it has “broken pieces” rather than the seafloor being one big piece. Also, to the left of the Pacific plate, the seafloor goes from older to younger seafloor which is different from the other areas. 

    S2 – On the bottom left side of the Australian Plate, there seems to be only young seafloor, in the red and orange range, whereas the other areas go into some green and blue. 

    1. Are volcanoes present at ALL boundaries?
    – Not all volcanoes are present in all boundaries
    2.
    – Volcanoes seem to occur mostly at the plate boundary in a linear way following the boundary itself
    3.
    – I found 5 unique plate boundaries. V1 between the Pacific and North American Plate, V2 between the Nazca and South American Plate, V3 at the Cocos and Caribbean Plate, V4 by the Australian and Eurasian Plate, V5 by the Pacific and Eurasian Plate and V6 at the North American and Eurasian Plate. V1 through V5 seem to have a lot of volcanoes along the plate boundaries meanwhile V6 has no volcanoes n=between those two boundaries.
    2.
    1. Are earthquakes present at ALL boundaries?
    – Earthquakes are not located exactly on all boundaries.
    2.
    – Earthquakes occur mostly at a plate boundary, but there are also a few cases where there is a clustered pattern as well as some earthquakes that occur in the middle of a plate.
    3.
    – I have observed 4 unique plate boundaries. E1 at the Nazca and South American Plate, E2 at the African and Eurasian Plate, E3 at the Australian and Eurasian Plate and E4 at the Pacific and Eurasian Plate. E1, E3 and E4 have a chain of volcanoes at their boundaries meanwhile E2 has a cluster of volcanoes near the boundary but on the side of the Eurasian Plate.
    3.
    1.
    – There are different elevations along the plate boundaries such as in North American Plate in which I see mountains and then on the Pacific Plate you see a much less elevation
    2.
    – T1 chain of trenches along the Australian Plate
    4.
    1.
    – They are not the same, the youngest plates seem to be between the Pacific and Nazca Plate, and the Australian and African Plate. The oldest seem to be between the Pacific and Eurasian Plate.
    2.
    – It seems like age increases as it goes away from the plate boundary
    3.
    -S1 between the Pacific and Nazca Plate because it seems to have a lot of new seafloor development
    -S2 by the Pacific plate because there is a lot of old seafloor in that one location

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