Lab 1 Exercises
Activity I: Plate Boundary Characteristics
In this activity you will learn to identify types of plate boundaries based on the characteristics they exhibit. This activity is based on the “Discovering Plate Boundaries” activity by Dale S. Sawyer at Rice University and modified based on teaching experiences at the SEOS department of the University of Victoria, Canada.
In groups, we will examine five types of plate boundaries today:
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- Ocean-Ocean Divergent (the boundary between two plates where oceanic crust is being pullled apart)
- Ocean-Ocean Convergent (where two plates of oceanic crust are moving toward one another leading to the subduction of one plate)
- Ocean-Continent Convergent (where oceanic and continental crust are moving toward one another leading to the subduction of the oceanic crust)
- Continent-Continent Convergent (where two plates of continental crust are moving toward one another)
- Ocean-Ocean Transform (where oceanic crust is moving horizontally in opposite directions across a transform fault)
To start, download or view the plate boundaries map. Seven plate boundaries are highlighted and numbered on your map. You will also be assigned a map displaying one of four data sets: volcanoes, earthquakes, topography/bathymetry, and seafloor age.
You will each, individually, study your data set and attempt to draw conclusions about what geological features and processes characterize each of the numbered plate boundaries.
Later in lab today, you will be joining a live video conference in small groups to share your observations with your group mates. You will be asked to summarize your observations so write down your conclusions and be prepared to teach your peers!
Step 1
Examine your assigned map. Start by locating all the numbered plate boundaries on your assigned map. Are they easy or difficult to find? Looking closely at your data type, start making notes about the spatial distribution of the data points. Exactly what you look for will vary with data type. For the point data (volcanoes and earthquakes) you are looking for distribution patterns. For surface data (topography and seafloor age) you are looking for where the surface is high and where it is low, where it is old and where it is young. In this activity you are focusing on observations, not interpretations, meaning that you do not need to worry about why there is or is not a pattern, you just need to observe and record what you see. You are analyzing the data, not interpreting them!
Step 2
Now focus your attention on the numbered plate boundaries on the plate boundaries map. Identify the nature of your data near each of the numbered plate boundaries. Is it high or low, symmetric or asymmetric, missing or not missing, varying along the boundary or constant along the boundary, etc. Complete Table 1.1 below to classify the plate boundaries based on your observations of your assigned data, using the tips below for guidance. Right now, you will only fill in the co