Oceanography

Homework Ch 3 Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Most of the information will be available in your textbook chapter. Occasionally a question will require searching on the internet or doing some simple calculations. When calculations are required, you must show your work. Type your answers as a word document, then save and upload your answer document in the assignment link before the deadline.

1) Describe the three types of plate boundaries. What processes take place at each type of boundary? In what direction do the plates move at each boundary? Divergent boundaries where new crust is created as two or more plates that pull away from one another. Convergent boundaries where crust is destroyed and recycled back into the interior of the Earth as one plate goes under another plate. Transform-fault boundaries are where two plates slide horizontally to one another usually due to plates movement from earthquakes or sliding such as the San Andreas Fault. 2) Explain the formation and symmetry of the magnetic stripes found on either side of the midocean ridge system. What is their significance when the magnetic information is correlated with the age of the crust? The mid-ocean ridge makes a divergent plate boundary and the new rocks being formed retain a magnetic orientation similar to the Earths magnetic field. Rocks that formed when the magnetic field was reversed will show a reversed orientation. This results in a zebra like pattern that is symmetrical on each side of the ridge showing they are spreading apart. They correlate to magnetic anomalies associated with outflows of lava from land based volcanoes. 3) It is unlikely that magnetic anomaly stripes older than about 200 million years will be found anywhere in the oceans. Why? Does this mean that seafloor spreading did not occur before 200 million years ago? Alfred Wehener proposed continental drift suggesting that Pangaea was one large land mass about 200 million years ago. This large landmass splintered apart into fragments which have slowly drifted away from one another to cause new ocean basins between them. It is possible that seafloor spreading occurred previous to 200 million years ago and we spread so far apart that they actually began to move toward one another eventually causing Pangaea.

4) In which ocean is the oldest oceanic crust likely to be found? Why? Looking at figure B3-3 it looks like it would be the Pacific Ocean. Age is associated with the increase in distance from the ridge crest. The greatest distance of blue shading on the map is from the crest in/near California and out into the Pacific. 5) Assume that magnetic anomaly C in Fig 3-3 is 650,000 years old. Calculate a spreading rate for the sea floor. Now, using the calculated seafloor spreading rate estimate the age of magnetic anomaly B in Figure 3-3. Speed = distance/time. So I measured C to be 4 cm from the ridge or A. Every 6 cm is 200 km so C is ~133.3km from A. Therefore, 133.3/650,000yrs = 2.05X10km/yr is the spreading rate. B is 2.5 cm or 83.3km from the ridge. So, distance/spreading rate = time or 83.3km/2.05X10km/yr 406,341.5 yrs.