Plate Tectonics

Assignment 3

GEO-208

100 points (5%)

Date June 3, 2019

Plate Tectonics

Answer all questions. All questions worth same points.

Part I

1. A. What are the three types of plate boundaries?

B. In detail, explain plate interactions/motions at each plate boundary.

C. Indicate whether the plate margin described above are constructive, destructive or neither?

D. What kind of geologic processes (i.e. volcanoes, earthquakes, rift valley, mountain formation etc.) do we expect at the three types of plate boundaries?

2. What type of plate boundary or boundaries is/are found in or near:

a. The San Francisco, CA area

b. Iceland

c. Indonesia

d. The Red Sea

e. Northern India

f. The Aleutian Islands

Part II

Many people have heard that California will one day “fall into the ocean.” Is there any scientific evidence to support this claim? What do scientists know about the geological future of California? In this assignment you will investigate these questions.

Read through the websites below -they focus on the geological past, present, and future of California:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/contents.html

http://seismo.berkeley.edu/faq/california.html

http://geology.com/articles/san-andreas-fault.shtml

Be sure to click on the links within these pages.

3. Using these websites and others answer the following questions in detail:

1. What type of plate boundary does California straddle?

2. How are the plates on either side of this boundary currently moving?

3. What type of geological activity is resulting from this motion?

4. How accurately is this activity (and future activity) generally portrayed in disaster movies?

5. Based on current motion along the plate boundary, what is the predicted geological future of California?

Based on your research, answer the question posed at the beginning of this assignment – Will California eventually “fall into the ocean”?