Transcript Plate Tectonics and Western North America

Plate Tectonics and Western
North America
Magnetic Stripes off Pacific Coast
Evolution of the Eastern Pacific
Western U.S. and the Andes
How the West Was Stretched
The Plate Tectonics Model
Geology of the Caribbean
Fit of
Continents
Across the
Atlantic
The Caribbean
The Caribbean Plate
How the Plates are Moving
Some Mysteries
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What was between North and South America?
How did Central America form?
Where did the Greater Antilles come from?
Why is the Caribbean shallower than the
Atlantic?
• Why is there a plate between North and South
America at all?
A Subduction Zone
How Arcs Grow
Exotic Terranes
Fit of
Continents
Across the
Atlantic
The Caribbean
Before Breakup
Opening of the North Atlantic
150 m.y.
Yucatan Rifts Away
130 m.y.
120 m.y.
110 m.y.
100 m.y.
Volcanic Plateau Begins to Form
80 m.y.
Plateau Encounters Subduction Zone
70 m.y.
60 m.y.
Yucatan Basin Opens
40 m.y.
30 m.y.
East Pacific Rise Approaches
10 m.y.
Now