Introduction The plate tectonic plays an important role in understanding many of the geological aspects and observations and it allows scientists to prevent disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes. The Africa plate is an interested plate because it bounded with many difference major plates. This report will summery the general setting of the Africa plate with highlighting the most interested geological features in the first part. This including the type of plate boundaries and a brief history of the Africa plate. While the second part will focus on the east African rift and its widely debate initial and current mechanism processes. General Tectonic setting of Africa The African plate is bounded by different types of plate boundaries. These plates are Divergent boundary in which the plate move away from each other in opposite direction and it create earthquake and volcanic activity. The second type is the Convergent boundary, in this type the plates move toward each other causing one plate to subduct below the other. And the third type is the Transform boundary. Plates slide past one another and usually earthquakes are associated with it (Smith and Pun 2009). The North and South American plates bounded the African plate from the west which formed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The plate boundaries here is mostly divergent with some transform boundaries. The African plate is spreading away from the North American plate at 28 mmyr-1 though the rate is decreasing toward the north and from the South American plate at 30 mmyr-1. While in the east the African plate is divergently bounded by the Arabian and Indian plates and they moving at average rate of 20mmyr-1. From the north, the Eurasian plate bounded the African plate; here the... ... middle of paper ... ...9-272 • Simkin,T., Unger, J., Tilling, R., Vogt, P. and Spall, H. (1994) This dynamic planet : world map of volcanoes, earthquakes, impact craters, and plate tectonics. U.S. Geological Survey, Map Distribution • Smith, G and Pun, A. (2009) How does Earth work? : physical geology and the process of science. Prentice Hall pp640 • Reilinger, R., McClusky, S., Vernant, P., Laurence, S., Ergintav, S., Cakmak, R., Ozener, H., Kadirov, F., Guliev, I., Stepanyan, R., Nadariya, M., Hahubia, G., Mahmoud, S., ArRajehi, A., Abdulaziz, K., Paradissis, D., Al-Aydrus, A., Prilepin, M., Guseva, T., Evren, E., Dmitrotsa, A., Filikov, S.V., Gomez, F., Al-Ghazzi, R., and Karam, G.. (2006) GPS constraints on continental deformation in the Africa-Arabia-Eurasia continental collision zone and implications for the dynamics of plate interactions. Journal of Geophysical Research 111 (B5)
Marshak, S. (2009) Essentials of Geology, 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, ch. 11, p. 298-320.
Earthquakes are a natural part of the Earth’s evolution. Scientific evidence leads many geologists to believe that all of the land on Earth was at one point in time connected. Because of plate tectonic movements or earthquakes, continental drift occurred separating the one massive piece of land in to the seven major continents today. Further evidence supports this theory, starting with the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a large mass of plate tectonics, which are increasing the size of the Atlantic Ocean while shrinking the Pacific. Some scientists believe that the major plate moveme...
Plummer, C.C., McGeary, D., and Carlson, D.H., 2003, Physical geology (10th Ed.): McGraw-Hill, Boston, 580 p.
van der Pluijm, B., and Marshak, S. (2004). Earth Structure. New York: WW Norton & Company.
When the plates mash together on a convergent boundary, they can create an earthquake. A place with a convergent boundary is New Zealand. When the plates pull apart, a divergent boundary, they create a hole in the ocean that causes molten lava to rush up and it causes a volcano to form. A place with a divergent boundary is Iceland. With about 130 volcanoes all together, it has the most volcanoes of any country in the world and is on two tectonic plates. Santorini is currently in an area of earth where the African and Eurasian plate meet, and Atlantis disappeared with a rumble that could have come from a volcano or an
Subduction of plates, 2002, the regents of the university of California, Viewed 12 April 2014,
The plate tectonic theory is a theory that geologists use to help explain the Earth’s surface processes and events. It explains that the sliding of these plates are either away from each other, sliding past each other, or sliding into each other and causing one of the plates to slide beneath the other. There are three kinds of plate tectonic boundaries: divergent, convergent, and transform plate boundaries. A divergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other. Magma then flows up from the mantle to fill in the space between the plates, forming a raised ridge called a mid-ocean ridge. The magma also spreads in the exterior, forming new ocean floor and new oceanic crust. A convergent boundary occurs when two plates
Basil Davidson’s book on West Africa before the colonial era provides a very traditional and fact-oriented narrative of the traditional and embattled concept of Atlantic history to 1850. In sixteen chapters, Davidson explores the majesty of the West African kingdoms and contacts within and among their neighboring borders regarding trade with commodities, religion, art, education and warfare. Davidson’s approach offers many fascinating stories on kingdoms in West Africa to present a detailed history of West Africa before the colonialism during the mid-nineteenth century.
Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates moving in the earth's crust. They either move apart or pull together at faults. Two forms of faults are normal faulting where the hanging wall moves downward causing rocks to be pulled apart by tension and reverse faulting, which is the opposite where the hanging wall moves upward casuing rocks to be forced together by tension. These movements cause tectonic plate boundaries called divergent boundaries, convergent boundaries and transform boundaries. Each boundary is different and play a
Volcanism is a major part of the Galapagos and their formation. The island chain is positioned on the Nazca Plate, which is subducting beneath the South American Plate at a geologically rapid pace of 2.5 inches per year. In addition, this Nazca Plate is located directly on top of the Galapagos Hotspot. It is here that mantle plumes melt Earth’s crust, creating volcanoes as a product. The oldest island was first shaped by this ...
Sub-Saharan Africa refers to the diverse landscape of more than 50 countries of Africa, which are south of the Sahara Desert. There are over nine million square miles of valleys, plateaus, and mountains in this region of Africa. Because of the prevalence of plateaus, Africa has been nicknamed the “continent of plateaus”. Between the plateaus, there are steep slopes, or escarpments. This continent has the highest overall elevation because of the plateaus it has. This area is mountainous with such mountains as the Atlas Mountains in the Northwest, Drakensburg Mountains and Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak. The Great Rift Valley is also in this region. There are many rivers in this region, including the “Nile, Congo, Niger, and the Zambezi Rivers” (Physical Geography).
According to Levin, “This subduction created batholiths, compressional structures, volcanism, and metamorphism that accompanied Mesozoic and Cenozoic orogenies.” The dense oceanic crust was subducting beneath the continental crust more quickly than it was being created at the mid-ocean spreading ridge. The oceanic crust was part of the Farallon plate, which has now almost completely disappeared because it was consumed by the North American plate (Levin).
First you might need to know definition of tectonics. It is a theory in geology. The lithosphere of the Earth is divided into a small number of plates which float on and travel independently over the mantle and much of the Earth’s seismic activity occurs at the boundaries of these plates. That is the official definition of Plate tectonics. secondly, this plate covers many parts of continents. plate boundaries don’t go according to Continents boundaries, they make their own boundaries. The North American plat...
The concurrent convective circulations in the mantle leads to some segments of the mantle moving on top of the outer core which is very hot and molten in nature. This kind of movement in different segments occurs as tectonic plates. These tectonic plates are basically seven on the earth surface as major ones, although, several small ones exist also. The plates motions are characterized by varying velocities, this variance results to sub sequential collision of two plates (leading to formation of a mountain in a convergent boundary), drift of two plates (leading to formation of rifts in a divergent boundary), or parallel movement in a transform boundary(Webcache 3).
Convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries and convection currents all examples of physical evidence that supports the theory of plate tectonics. Continental drift is the theory contrived by Alfred Wegener in 1912 that states that Earth’s tectonic plates are in slow constant movement. At the time he didn’t know how the continents moved. The theory was soon modernized in the 50’s and the theory of plate tectonics became was born. Plate tectonics is the theory that tectonic plates are in slow constant movement due to convection currents in the mantle. Now we know for sure, thanks to scientific studies of convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries, and convection currents in the Earth’s mantle, that the continental drift and plate tectonics theories are not