What Are The Three Theories That Were The Predecessors To Plate Tectonic Theory

Decent Essays
Question:
Describe in detail the three theories that were the predecessors to plate tectonic theory. Provide evidence of how features of the surface support the current, theory of plate tectonics describing the ways the tectonic plates interact and the result of their interactions.

The Continental Drift Theory
The Continental Drift can help the surface support the current by plowing through ocean basins. It also did not include seafloor spreading or subduction. So, that did not cause an earthquake because it would not support it if it did have an earthquake, because it would shake it. The seismic data discovered that there are zones of Earthquakes that dip down deep. The new ocean crust is forming in the middle of the oceans, while the older

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The research studies reveal the changing dynamics and showed that earth is left as the only planet in the solar system with the movement of tectonic plates. The studies also show that the planets like Mars and Venus had the same types of plates but they have not been detected for a long time. According to the geologists the major tectonic plate in the earth’s crust are Eurasian, North American, South American, the African, the Antarctic, Pacific and Indoaustralian plates. However along with the plates mentioned above there are some micro and secondary plates in the earth…

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Subsequent research helped validate the theory of plate techtonics and the Aleutian Subduction Zone. Over 600 years of landform uplift finally gave way. The initial shaking caused liquefaction from the Spring melt and the proximity of the ocean saturating the soil and making it extremely unstable. When the spring-loaded trigger gave way it thrust the landmass towards the ocean for a period of 4.5 minutes during which most damage occurred. There was a vertical displacement of an area about 200,000 square miles.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    he movement of the tectonic plates causing a shaking of the Earth’s surface, is an earthquake. Seismographs are instruments that can measure the size of an earthquake, from a tremor to a major event, as they are happening almost unceasingly. Some earthquakes can cause major events like broken dams, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and destruction of cities. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015) The densest areas of the map – appendix 2 – is around Indonesia and New Zealand.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Which generates massive earthquakes every 100 to 150 years. The plate boundary broke of in 2 sections in 1949 - 46. The last earthquake was in 1854, theorized that subduction zone is to relive its accumulated stress. Keiji Doi, Which was and earthquake research institute that lays out entire scenario. Major earthquakes have hit this world really hard.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Earthquakes In Caascadia

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Geodetic-leveling data indicate that a large patch of the interpolate decollement (the main fault between the North American Plate and the subduction oceanic plate) off southern Oregon is locked. This and other evidence has led to proposals that an earthquake with a magnitude as large as 9 could someday devastate the…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Missoula Flood Causes

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Missoula Flood’s Course and Cause 4.) When ice covered almost all of North America, known as the ice age, water began to build up against a 2,500ft ice dam. Soon, when the water presure was at it’s highest, at 2,000ft in dept, the ice broke. This resulted in a catastrphic flood he size of Lake Erie and Onterio combined! The water swept over Eastern Washington moving from 30 to 50 mph.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Alfred Wegener was a german scientist who developed the theory of Continental drift. He believed all the continents were one land mass. He called this super continent “Pangea”. Wegener used evidence from three sources to support his theory. First, was fossil evidence from reptiles and plants.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Damages were not nearly as serious as it would be today, mostly because Southern California was sparsely populated. The effects of the earthquake were quite dramatic, even frightening. Were the Fort Tejon shock to happen today, the damage would easily run into billions of dollars, and the loss of life would be substantial. On March 10, 1933, a 6.4 earthquake hit the Newport-Inglewood Fault, causing serious damage in long Beach and other communities. The earthquake resulted in 120 deaths and more than $50 million in property damage.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the most devastating and well known earth quakes in American history was the Great San Francisco Earthquake that happened on April 18th, 1906. Early in the morning there was a 296 miles long rupture along the San Andreas Fault and extensive fires followed after. This earthquake remains as one of the most important studies of a single earth quake because of what scientists were able to study and learn from it. This earthquake affected earth, caused severe damage, a large death toll, as well as created an economic impact. Studying this earthquake we are able to determine the type of plate boundary that occurred and if this was expected from this type of boundary.…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although geologist cannot predict when an earthquake will occur, they can make assumptions based on location and previous earthquake activity if earthquakes will continue in the same area. The records of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake explain why damage…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Christopher Scholz and his two colleagues, “The sudden movement of the Earth caused by the abrupt release of accumulated strain along a fault in the interior,” meaning an earthquake is the sudden movement along a fault line, which is where tectonic plates meet. When the plates shift this causes the Earth to shake but when the plates become unrestrained large earthquakes occur. The earthquake is not something that happens in one moment, it is a gradual buildup of pressure in one area that when released can cause large…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The earthquake in…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On San Andreas Fault

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Many scientists believe that small ruptures are not likely to happen but rather the extended, infrequent earthquakes (Weldon). The articles “Past and Future Earthquakes…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1960 Valdivia Earthquake

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This earthquake makes me think that the next large earthquake may happen in the California. Because the California is located in the American plate and Pacific plate. It is a convergent boundary and this area belong to the Circum-Pacific seismic belt area. What’s more, the San Andrea fault is located in the western of America. It would be a high intensity earthquake if California had the earthquake.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    It has been proven that what caused climate change is not only due to human factors but natural factors as well. As in the article “causes of climate change”, it talked about how the natural and anthropogenic effects are causes of the changes in our climate. Some natural causes are the effects of plate tectonics, volcanoes, the earth’s tilt, and ocean currents. Plate tectonics, where countries and “continents were all part of one large landmass” (Causes of climate change. Retrieved November 23, 2015 ) in the past, at some point in time moved into different positions and drift apart, caused continents around the earth to experience different climate conditions than they used to experience before this shift in their positions.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays