Week 2 Plate Tectonics Paper General Questions - General General Questions Imagine you are the Director of Earthquake Preparedness for Los Angeles and have been tasked with writing a press release educating the public on earthquake preparedness. Prepare a 700- to 1‚050-word press release that includes the following information: · Descriptions of hazards associated with earthquakes in Los Angeles · Origin and causes of earthquakes · Relation of earthquakes to plate tectonics
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The San Andreas Fault and its role in Plate Tectonics and Earthquake Prediction The San Andreas Fault is one of the most widely studied faults in the world. Scientists use an array of methods in collecting data and providing analysis of fault characteristics both past and present. Presently there are many differing hypothesis and models used to describe crustal movements and deformation within the Pacific and North American plate boundary. Historical earthquakes along this fault have proven to be
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The initial theory of continental drift was put forward by a German meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1915. This theory did not seem credible until it was connected with the plate tectonic theory in the mid 1960’s. The Tectonic plate theory had an advantage over previous predictions as it could be supported by observed occurrences. One such thing that supports these two theories is that seen from space the continents look as if they might once have been joined together. This possible idea was then
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The Structure of the Earth and Plate Tectonics Structure of the Earth Mantle • The Earth is made up of 3 main layers: Outer core Inner core – Core – Mantle – Crust Crust The Crust • This is where we live! • The Earth’s crust is made of: Continental Crust Oceanic Crust - thick (10-70km) - buoyant (less dense than oceanic crust) - mostly old - thin (~7 km) - dense (sinks under continental crust) - young How do we know what the Earth is made of? • Geophysical surveys: seismic‚ gravity‚
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Evaluate how plate tectonics theory helps our understanding of the distribution of seismic and volcanic events. Plate tectonics is a relatively new science. It’s partially explained in the sense that we still don’t know fully about how the plates came together‚ what they were before they were the seven continents we know today. We already know‚ or have a theory‚ about what our world was like a long time ago and so if we already know that the plates can pull and push against each other‚ then surely
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Evaluate how plate tectonics theory helps our understanding of the distribution of seismic and volcanic events(40) The global seismic and volcanic activity is concentrated along the margins of the earth’s plates‚ which are broken pieces of the crust and are moved by convection currents that are caused by heat rising and falling inside the mantle generated by radioactive decay in the core. This movement of the plates and the Earth’s inner activity is called plate tectonics and can cause seismic and
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The plate tectonic theory is the theory that describes large amounts of movements in the Earths lithosphere‚ whereby Continental and Oceanic crust is moved‚ destroyed and made from this. The idea of plate tectonics builds on other concepts such as continental drift‚ where continental plates over millions of years move‚ however the concept of continental drift was not accepted for some time‚ and there were many other theories to suggest that something else took place‚ as the idea of the earth moving
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How does the theory of plate tectonics help to explain the world distribution of earthquake and volcanic zones? The Earth’s crust is made up of seven major plates and several smaller plates. These plates drift on top of the mantle. When two plates meet‚ they can either be constructive‚ destructive or conservative. At a conservative plate margin‚ one plate moves past another. As the plates are not smooth‚ great amounts of tension build up and earthquakes are made when the tension is released
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‘Evaluate how plate tectonics theory helps our understanding of the distribution of seismic and volcanic events’ In 1912‚ Alfred Wegener published his theory that a single super continent named Pangaea once existed about 300 million years ago. He proposed that Pangaea then later split into two continents of Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south and that today’s continents were the result of further splitting of these two land masses. Where the plates split are known as plate boundaries
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Explain how plate tectonics can help our understanding of the distribution of either earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Plate tectonics can help us understand the distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes very easily‚ it is recorded that main earthquake and volcanic zones are clustered along plate boundaries and more powerful ones are near destructive and conservative plate boundaries. Over time we have learnt that earthquakes that occur on a constructive plate boundary cause little hazard to
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