Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Mountain Ranges, Mid-oceanic Ridges, and Tectonic Plates

Why do we have plate Tectonics?

Plate Tectonics and all of the exciting geology associated with it, is the result of Earths attempt to cool down.
It is the result of the second law of Thermodynamics, which implies that heat tends to flow from hotter regions to cooler regions.

Planets cool down by a combination of radiation, conduction and convection. Once the heat gets out of Earths surface, it radiates out into space, but it gets to the surface by conduction and convection.

A tectonic plate (also called lithospheric

plate) is a massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere.

Plate size can vary greatly, from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across; the Pacific and Antarctic Plates are among the largest.

Plate thickness also varies greatly, ranging from less than 15 km for young oceanic lithosphere to about 200 km or more for ancient continental lithosphere (for example, the interior parts of North and South America).

Earthquake
is the vibration of Earth produced by the rapid release of energy. Earthquakes are often caused by slippage along a break in Earths crust.

An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The location below the earths surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.

A Volcano
is a place on the Earth's surface (or any other planet's or moon's surface) where molten rock, gases and pyroclastic debris erupt through the earth's crust.

Volcanoes vary quite a bit in their structure - some are cracks in the earth's crust where lava erupts, and some are domes, shields, or mountain-like structures with a crater at the summit.

A Mountain Range
is a group or chain of mountains that are close together. Mountain ranges are usually separated from other mountain ranges by passes and rivers.

The Mid-Ocean Ridge

is an interconnected system of undersea volcanoes that meander over the Earth like the raised seams on a baseball. It is a continuous 40,000-mile (60,000-kilometer) seam that encircles Earth and bisects its oceans.

Describe the relationships among earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, mid-oceanic ridges, and tectonic plates.

Earth's Crust, Astenosphere, Litosphere

The Earth's Crust, Lithosphere and Asthenosphere

Crust, the upper layer of the Earth, is not always the same. Crust under the oceans is only about 5 km thick while continental crust can be up to 65 km thick. Also, ocean crust is made of denser minerals than continental crust.

Inner Core 1200 km made of solid Fe, Ni. Outer Core 2250 km made of liquid Fe, Ni. Mantle 2900 km made of dense rocks. Crust 5 40 km made of solid lighter rocks.

Lithosphere (Crust and MOHO) 100km thick.

MOHO = Mohorovicic Discontinuity

The tectonic plates are made up of Earths crust and the upper part of the mantle layer underneath. Together the crust and upper mantle are called the lithosphere and they extend about 80 km deep.
The lithosphere is broken into giant plates that fit around the globe like puzzle pieces. These puzzle pieces move a little bit each year as they slide on top of a somewhat fluid part of the mantle called the asthenosphere. All this moving rock can cause earthquakes.

The asthenosphere is ductile and can be pushed and deformed like silly putty in response to the warmth of the Earth. These rocks actually flow, moving in response to the stresses placed upon them by the churning motions of the deep interior of the Earth. The flowing asthenosphere carries the lithosphere of the Earth, including the continents, on its back.

Litosphere
The solid, rocky crust covering entire planet. This crust is inorganic and is composed of minerals.

It covers the entire surface of the earth from the top of Mount Everest (the world's highest peak that
is part of the Himalaya mountain range along the border of Nepal and Tibet) to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the world's oceans. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands).

The lithosphere is the outer solid part of the earth, including the crust and uppermost mantle. The lithosphere is about 100 km thick, although its thickness is age dependent (older lithosphere is thicker).

The lithosphere below the crust is brittle enough at some locations to produce earthquakes by faulting, such as within a subducted oceanic plate.