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Topic: Nazca Plate

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Plate tectonics

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	What is Plate Tectonics?
		Plate tectonics is the study of how the Earth's plates are driven and shaped by geological forces that keep them in constant motion.
		A thin oceanic plate converging with a thick continental plate will be pushed beneath the continental plate, creating a subduction zone -- an area marked by a deep submarine trench where the oceanic plate is being driven downwards, eventually returning to the molten mantle.
		This plate moves northwesterly at a rate of about 2 inches (5 cm) per year, while the North American plate on the opposite side of the San Andreas fault is moving in a southerly direction.
	www.wisegeek.com /what-is-plate-tectonics.htm (734 words)

	Plate Tectonics - Crystalinks
		The key principle of plate tectonics is that the lithosphere exists as separate and distinct tectonic plates, which "float" on the fluid-like asthenosphere.
		Tectonic plates are comprised of two types of lithosphere: continental and oceanic lithospheres; for example, the African Plate includes the continent and parts of the floor of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
		Tectonic plates across the globe are constantly shifting - though slowly, usually by a few centimetres a year - with the magma beneath the crust.
	www.crystalinks.com /platetectonics.html (2460 words)

	Problems with plate tectonics
		Plate rigidity is a central tenet of plate tectonics.
		Plate velocities are shown by arrows; their length indicates the displacement expected in a period of 25 million years.
		Plate tectonicists who recognize the existence of ridge-parallel flow generally argue that a mantle diapir wells up beneath each ocean ridge segment, and that at the crest of each diapir, radial horizontal flow takes place, with a significant component parallel to the strike of the ridge and in opposite directions.
	ourworld.compuserve.com /homepages/dp5/lowman.htm (6123 words)

	Plate tectonics
		The margins of divergent plate boundaries are marked by mid-oceanic ridges in oceanic crust and are recognized by linear rift valleys where newly forming divergent boundaries occur beneath continental crust.
		Interaction of plates at their boundaries account for most of the Earth's seismic and volcanic activity and, as will be apparent in the next chapter, the origin of mountain systems.
		In those areas where the rate of subduction is faster than the forward movement of the overriding plate, the lithosphere on the landward side of the volcanic island arc may be subjected to tensional stress and stretched and thinned, resulting in the formation of a back-arc basin.
	blank005.tripod.com /geology/tectonics.html (3702 words)

	ScienceMaster - JumpStart - Plate Motion
		Plate boundary zones -- broad belts in which boundaries are not well defined and the effects of plate interaction are unclear.
		Even though the Nazca Plate as a whole is sinking smoothly and continuously into the trench, the deepest part of the subducting plate breaks into smaller pieces that become locked in place for long periods of time before suddenly moving to generate large earthquakes.
		Land on the west side of the fault zone (on the Pacific Plate) is moving in a northwesterly direction relative to the land on the east side of the fault zone (on the North American Plate).
	www.sciencemaster.com /jump/earth/plate_motion.php (2550 words)

	Galapagos Geology - Plate Tectonics
		The Galápagos are located on the very northern edge of the Nazca plate, which is bounded by the Cocos (north), the Pacific (west), the South American (east), and the Antarctic (south) plates (see map).
		The Nazca plate itself is currently drifting south, away from the Cocos plate, and east, away from the Pacific plate.
		This same movement of the Nazca plate is responsible for producing the cluster of volcanic islands we call Galápagos.
	www.rit.edu /~rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/Vulcanism2.html (503 words)

	Life in the Universe > Life on the Earth > The Earth is a Unique Planet > Plate Tectonics
		Plate tectonics is a vital part of the global cycle that maintains the carbon balance between atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.
		The plate boundaries (see the diagram) are characterised by different types of tectonic activity, depending on whether new crust is being formed or old crust destroyed.
		Where plates move past each other, transform faults develop, associated with which are some of the world's major earthquake zones, e.g., the San Andreas fault in California, where the Pacific plate is moving eastwards against the north-north westwards moving North American plate at a rate of ~ 1 cm per year.
	www.lifeinuniverse.org /noflash/Platetectonics-05-02-01.html (680 words)

	A Lesson in Plate Tectonics
		Plate margins are the edges of the plates, where all the awesome power of nature is released in earthquakes and volcanoes!
		As a plate moves in one direction it collides with the adjacent plate on its "front" end, while the trailing end of the plate is being pulled and stretched (spreading) from the plate on the other end.
		The long cordillera, or chord-like chain of volcanic mountains known as the Andes, are a result of the rumpling of the South American plate where the Nazca plate crashes into it, AND the volcanoes that have formed from the melting Nazca plate margin deep down.
	www.extremescience.com /PlateTectonicsmap.htm (812 words)

	Geology: Plate Tectonics
		Continetal plate is thick and composed of sediments and volcanic rocks, oceanic crust is thinner and consist only of a certain kind of volcanic rocks.
		Plate Tectonics, the Cause of Earthquakes, explains the connection between plate tectonics and earthquakes.
		Plate Tectonics, as the domain name suggests, this is a very informative site about all aspects of plate tectonics.
	www.showcaves.com /english/explain/Geology/PlateTectonics.html (1126 words)

	Earth Floor: Plate Tectonics
		Plates only move a few centimeters each year, so collisions are very slow and last millions of years.
		The edge of the continental plate in the drawing has folded into a huge mountain range, while the edge of the oceanic plate has bent downward and dug deep into the Earth.
		An example of this type of collision is found on the west coast of South America where the oceanic Nazca Plate is crashing into the continent of South America.
	www.cotf.edu /ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/plates2.html (468 words)

	GG/HIGP Seminar Series: March 21, 2003
		Historically, hotspots have been used to define a fixed reference frame for plate motions: however, since hotspots are rooted within a dynamically convecting mantle, it is hard to believe that the fixity is absolute and instead slow motion between hotspots are expected to be occurring.
		To predict the positions and ages of the Easter hotspot track on the Nazca plate, we needed a good model of the absolute motion of the Nazca plate (Nazca APM) and the present location of the Easter hotspot.
		Although there are some dispersion owing to the various Nazca APM models used, the result shows that the position and ages of the modeled hotspot track well explain the observed geometry and ages, and there appears to be no systematic difference with time or distance from the present position.
	www.soest.hawaii.edu /GG/TGIF/tgif_030321.html (410 words)

	Plate Tectonics - Discover Our Earth
		The largest plate is the Pacific plate, followed by the African plate, Eurasian plate, Australian-Indian plate, Antarctic plate, North American plate, and South American plate.
		There are several entirely oceanic plates (Nazca, Cocos), but no entirely continental plates (with the possible exception of the Arabian peninsula; it depends on the criteria one uses to define individual plates and how much ocean is required to be considered "ocean").
		The fact that continents are included as part of plates made of both continent and ocean suggests that the continents do not move independently of the oceans as Wegener envisioned, but rather that continent and ocean move together as part of a single plate.
	atlas.geo.cornell.edu /education/instructor/tectonics/boundaries.html (490 words)

	Nazca Plate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America.
		The subducting Nazca Plate, which exhibits unusual flat-slab subduction, is tearing as well as deforming as it is subducted (Barzangi and Isacks) has formed, and continues to form the volcanic Andes Mountain Range.
		The precursor of the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate to its north was the Farallon Plate, which split in late Oligocene times, about 22.8 My, a date arrived at by interpreting magnetic anomalies.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Nazca_Plate (567 words)

	Home
		Plate Tectonics is a theory that suggests that the earth's crust is made up of huge plates of mass that move in relation to each other.
		The movement of the Nazca plate, upon which the Galápagos Islands lie, conveys the motion of the islands in a direction of east-southeast.
		Since the Galápagos Islands are moving with the Nazca plate and the hot spot remains stationary, the islands form and slowly drift away from the hot spot, at about 5cm per year, allowing more volcanoes and islands to be formed.
	www.geol.umd.edu /~jmerck/galsite/research/projects/leonard/geology.htm (1371 words)

	Plate Tectonics
		To understand plate tectonics we first need to understand the properties of the lithosphere, which includes the earth's crust and upper mantle.
		Located on the eastern side of the plate boundary is most of San Francisco, on the North American Plate, which is moving southeast.
		Being on opposite sides of the plate boundary, these cities are moving toward each other at a rate of 5 cm/yr.
	www.cst.cmich.edu /users/Franc1m/esc105/lectures/plate.htm (886 words)

	Plate Tectonics : Mountain Ranges
		The plates, therefore, emerging along mid-ocean ridges, sliding over the athenosphere, and grinding past other plates along transform faults, are almost all headed on a collision course.
		Thus, plate tectonics explains how the majestic peaks of one of the world’s great mountain ranges were once the deep sea-floors of an ancient drifting plate.
		Perhaps sediment from the Nazca Plate, which is diving under South America in the Peru-Chile Trench, is scraping off on the roots of the Andes.
	www.platetectonics.com /book/page_11.asp (603 words)

	Chapter 7
		The plate motion vectors were calculated according to the absolute plate motion reference frame (Tamaki, 1997; DeMets et al., 1990; Gripp and Gordon, 1990) and were used to move the plates back to their respective positions.
		Because of the constant eastward movement of the Nazca plate, the transform faults shifted over the hotspot shortly after the onset of spreading and for a short time span the rift axis came into a position on or south of the hotspot.
		Because the CNS-3 axis is east-west and the Nazca plate moves towards the east, the resulting northward shift of the spreading axis equals the spreading rate.
	www-odp.tamu.edu /publications/170_SR/chap_07/c7_3.htm (1300 words)

	Lecture #25: Plate Tectonics
		Plate Tectonics - is the paradigm that the Earth's lithosphere is divided into a dozen major plates which slide over the asthenosphere in various directions.
		As divergence continues, the continental crust on the upper part of the lithospheric plate is infilled with basalt to form oceanic crust.
		The motion of the two plates is parallel but in opposite directions so that the boundary is a shear zone but neither plate is gaining or loosing area.
	www.geosc.psu.edu /~engelder/geosc20/lect28.html (845 words)

	Plate Tectonics
		Plate tectonics is the all-encompassing theory that allows us to understand the present configuration of the surface of the Earth, to recreate the past positions of the continents and ocean basins, and to make predictions about the future.
		The angle of subduction is related to the age of the plate; the older the subducting plate, the steeper the angle.
		This is primarily a function of equal density of the plates; however, it also occurs due to the direction of movement.
	www.coloradocollege.edu /Dept/GY/rweb/plates.html (1473 words)

	Plate Tectonics Andes Mountain Range
		The leading edge of the Nazca Plate is subducting below the South American Plate at a plate boundary known as a subduction zone.
		During this subduction some Nazca crust is scraped off along base of the Andes, adding height to the entire range.
		As the sea-floor spreads on either side of this ridge, the Nazca Plate moves easterly while the Pacific Plate moves westerly.
	www.platetectonics.com /oceanfloors/andes.asp (140 words)

	Amateur Geologist Structured Geological Glossary: Plate Tectonics
		A point that is common to three plate and which must also be the meeting place of three boundary features, such as divergence zones, convergence zones, or transform fault.
		An elongated region along which a plate descends relative to another plate, for example, the descent of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate along the Peru-Chile Trench.
		Small crustal fragments, island arc, or seamount which are transported by the moving oceanic plate and are added to a continental mass at the subduction zone.
	www.amateurgeologist.com /content/glossary/tectonics/tectonics.html (1219 words)

	Pacific Trenches (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		When an oceanic plate, such as the Nazca Plate which moves eastwards under the southeastern Pacific Ocean, meets a continental edge such as South America, the denser and heavier oceanic crust is normally subducted and partially melted beneath the continental plate.
		At subduction zones, where one plate moves beneath the other, the subducted plate is dragged downwards into the earth's mantle until it reaches a depth where high temperatures partially melt the rock.
		Where an oceanic plate is subducted beneath continental crust, the magma produced by subductive melting erupts from volcanoes situated among long, linear mountain chains, such as the Andes in South America.
	www.pacificislandtravel.com /nature_gallery/pacifictrenches.htm (1190 words)

	Galapagos Islands rif - plate tectonics - Galapagos Cruises
		The formation of the Galápagos is intimately tied to the history of the Nazca plate, on which they lie.
		As the Nazca plate is forced into the mantle, it melts and its melt products work their way up to the surface to form volcanoes.
		There is a large body of geophysical evidence for the existence of enormous plumes of hot mantle material that originate near the earth's core and rise all the way to the crust.
	www.galapagoscruise.com.ec /index.pl/galapagos-plate-tectonics (552 words)

	Subduction Zone Volcanoes
		An example of the first case is the Nazca plate diving under the South American plate (to form most of the Andes volcanoes), and an example of the second is the Pacific plate diving under the Philippine Sea plate (to form the Mariana, Izu, and Bonin volcanoes).
		As a plate is subducted it gets twisted and tweaked, and the deep subduction zone earthquakes are almost certainly generated by this bending of the interior of the downgoing plate.
		Transform faults develop as a plate is formed at a mid ocean spreading center, and they are weaknesses that exist throughout the life of the oceanic plate.
	volcano.und.nodak.edu /vwdocs/vwlessons/volcano_types/arc.htm (1409 words)

	The Theory of PLATE TECHTONICS (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		The theory of plate techtonics was developed in the 1960s to explain the structure and movement of the earth’s crust or lithosphere. This phenomenon is sometimes called continental drift.
		This is a plate margin in which two plates are pushing against each other. The result is that one plate bends and moves under the other plate in a process called subduction.
		Converging plate margins are also known as subduction zones, or destructive plate margins.
	www.webdesigns.ai /classnotes/form3/platetechtonics.html (664 words)

	Project I
		Near the boundary with the Juan De Fuca Plate the movement is to the south and west.
		The Juan Fernandez island on the Nazca Plate is located at 30 degrees S latitude and 280 degrees E longitude.
		As the Pacific plate moves to the northwest new lithosphere "sits" on top of the hot spot and a new episode of volcanism is initiated.
	www.uh.edu /~jbutler/physical/exercise10.html (658 words)

	Plate Tectonics 2 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Plate Tectonics II divergent plate boundaries (continued): term spreading rate refers to total widening rate of an ocean basin resulting from motion of both plates -- the faster the spreading rate, the broader the mountain range
		when an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate, the oceanic plate always descends into the mantle because the continental plate is less dense; this collision always causes the development of continental volcanoes which may form coastal mountain ranges (e.g..
		occasionally two continental plates collide -- since they are of the same density, neither floats or descends; instead they push against each other until their rocks buckle and fold -- this forms mountain ranges (e.g..
	maritime.haifa.ac.il /departm/lessons/ocean/lect05.htm (631 words)

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