18 Oct Plate Tectonics and the Age of the Ocean Crust

Plate Tectonics and the Age of the Ocean Crust

Please note:

The Internet Problems are designed to completed individually; however, students may discuss difficult questions in Open Discussion. Answers should be in your own words. The goal for all the assignments is to demonstrate knowledge of both the question and the answer.

Based on the question, some answers may be like the responses from other students. Submitting the same answers or a complete match to another student’s work from this semester or a previous semester will result in a grade of 0 (zero) on the assignment.

Students should read the information (in this assignment read the map) found on the website and answer the questions in their own words. Cutting and pasting answers directly from a website does not demonstrate personal knowledge is considered plagiarism and will result in a grade of 0 (zero) on the assignment. Don’t risk academic discipline. The goal should be to articulate (in your own words) an understanding of both the question asked and the answer. Often there is more than one correct answer.

It is best to submit completed work at the Blackboard assignment pages. At the bottom of the assignment page (scroll down), two options for submission are given; cutting and pasting the submission into the text box provided or attaching a document. Attached submission should be in .rtf, .pdf .docx or .doc file format.

Please keep digital copies (back-ups) of all your submitted work. In the unlikely, but possible instance that your hard work is “lost in digital space,” you can resubmit the assignment without having to redo it.

Questions:

1) On the map what color represents the oldest oceanic crust?

How old is the oldest crust as shown on the map?

2) On the map what color represents the youngest oceanic crust?

How old is the youngest oceanic crust as shown on the map?

3)In the Atlantic Ocean, where is the youngest oceanic crust located (generally?)

4) In the Atlantic Ocean, where is the oldest oceanic crust located (generally?)

5) In general, geographic terms, describe the distribution of youngest and oldest oceanic crust in the Atlantic Ocean Basin.

6) How old is the oceanic crust along the coastline of Northern California?

7) Is the Northern California coastline crust older or younger than other parts of the Pacific Ocean?

8) Look the Pacific Ocean Basin and compare it to the Atlantic Ocean Basin.Specifically look at the oldest/youngest oceanic crust patterns. Are these ocean basins similar or different?Could they be both? Explain and be specific.

9) From your reading in Chapter 2 does the information given on this map regarding the age of the oceanic crust support the Theory of Plate Tectonics?Explain? (By synthesizing the information from this map and this week assigned reading, draw a correlation between deep ocean topographic features (i.e. mid-oceanic ridges, sea mounts, guyots, ocean trenches, rifts…) and the relative age of crustal material (rock)?)

10) How does plate tectonics as it relates to the formation of ocean basins help to explain the discrepancy in the age of the water in the ocean (collected over 4 billion years) and the maximum ago of the much younger oceanic crust which forms the ocean floors? Explain.