Plate Tectonics Essays -- Geophysics, Pangaea

Plate Tectonics Ever since the beginning on time, Humans believed the ground is solid and immobile. But this is not true whatsoever. The Earth is every-changing and continually in motion. The stability of the Earth is not at all what we think it is. Thinking about the rotational axis of the Earth, and possibly of what the Earth may become at a certain point in time, has a great influence on understanding all aspects of living things, either in the past, present, or future. The Theory of Plate tectonics is accredited to most of the creations of Mountain Ranges, the Centennial drifting Theory, for earthquakes, and volcanic activity. Plate tectonics and mountains also play a big part in the Earth and its geological features. Geophysics, which studies the physics of the Earth, has led to many important findings about the Earth and how it is made. Seismologic studies of planet Earth have revealed new information about the inside of the Earth that has helped to give new openings to plate tectonic theory. Due to geophysical studies, we now know that the Earth is made of several significant layers. Each one of these layers has its own properties. The crust is the outermost layer of the Earth. The crust is made up of the oceans and continents. The crust has a fluctuating thickness, being thirty to seventy-five kilometers thick in the continents and ten to fifteen kilometers thick in the ocean basins. The crust is made up mainly of alumino-silicates (Fowler p472). The layer underneath the crust is the mantle, which is made up mainly of ferro-magnesium silicates. The mantle is approximately two thousand, nine hundred kilometers thick, and is separated in to the upper and lower mantle. It is in the mantle where most of the centralized... ...sts believe that the North and South American plates are moving westward at approximately two to three centimeters per year. Based on the recordings of the earthquake, the Haitian quake seems to have occurred close to the Enriquillo Fault. The Enriquillo Fault is a big strike slip fault that runs across the southern border of Haiti. Scientists presume this is the fault that most likely ruptured because it is closest to the epicenter of the rupture. Although this was a big catastrophe for human life on the island of Haiti, it was not really unusual given the plate tectonic activity in that area. Unfortunately for Haiti, it is one of the most poorest and underdeveloped countries in the world. Its government was not really in the position to have any preparations in line for such a huge earthquake, and this caused thousands of people lost their lives (Kearey 2009).