Plate Tectonics

	Plate Tectonics	Welcome to	Updated on 05.05.15
		Poorna's Pages at the Glendale Community College

Welcome! Thanks for visiting Poorna's Pages at the Glendale Community College. These pages and the links therein introduce you to the fascinating worlds of Physical Geology, Environmental Geology and Oceanography. We offer 3-unit lecture and 1-unit laboratory classes in these areas, all at the freshman level, that satisfy the GE Physical Science requirement and therefore transfer to UC, CSU, USC and all other North American universities/colleges for the baccalaureate degree. This page presents a general outline of the topic named at the top of the page and links to some sites of interest, including Poorna's PowerPoint Presentations (as ppt as well as pdf files) and hand-outs/overviews (as pdf files). Please do feel free to contact me if you have any questions, wish to seek any clarifications, or have some suggestions that would improve this page.

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Click on this image to visit the USGS animations page

Poorna's Outlines:

Plate Tectonics (ppt version)
Plate Tectonics (pdf version)
Plate Tectonics (overview)

You may need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this PDF file

Click on this image to look at Scotese's paleoreconstructions

for selected geological epochs available at the USGS site.

Click on the image on the left for the USGS Online publication 'This Dynamic Earth'.
Click on this title Continents on the Move to access this PBS/NOVA production on past continental configurations.
Click on this title Exploring the Earth from Mars to read David Sandwell's article explaining how space exploration aids the understanding of processes
on the earth.

Some interesting Online readings on Plate Tectonics:

Clicking on the map below will enable you to view and download the original digital map of ocean floor ages from the NGDC
(National Geophysical Data Center).
Sea-Floor Spreading and Subduction Model: Read this USGS Open-File Report 99-132 (On-Line Edition) by John C. Lahr that describes how to build a model of the outer 300 km (180 miles) of the Earth that can be used to develop a better understanding of the principal features of plate tectonics, including sea-floor spreading, the pattern of magnetic stripes frozen into the sea floor, transform faulting, thrust faulting, subduction, and volcanism.
North Cascades Geology: Sea-Floor Spreading: Try this USGS page to compare magnetic stripes on the sea floor to the magnetic reversals in basalt on the land as seen in a vertical cliff and explains how this supports the sea floor spread model.
Visit the site: moorland school for an interesting presentation on plate tectonics.