GEOLOGY
100, PROJECT 2

Please use the website below, the course
Webliography, and Internet research to complete this project assignment. Visit the following United States Geological Survey (USGS)
“Dynamic Earth” website:.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html”>http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html.
Review the website and any Internet global plate tectonics websites you need
and then answer the following questions:

1) What are “Glomar Challenger” and “JOIDES Resolution”? What do they
do? Why are they important to geologists? How did this technology help to prove
the “theory of plate tectonics”?

2) Based on your interpretation of the maps and
diagrams on the website, where are the major concentrations of the world’s earthquakes? Is this distribution
related to the Pacific “Ring of Fire”?
Give some specific geologic locations around the ring. What major submarine geologic feature is located
near the ring. Explain how earthquake distribution helps support the theory of plate
tectonics.

3) What and where were the undersea hot springs (submarine geothermal vents) that were
discovered and observed in 1977? What technology allowed scientists to make
these observations and discoveries? What was the remarkable biological
discovery at these (and later other) undersea hot springs? What type of plate boundary is located at these vent sites? What is the major submarine geologic feature formed along
this plate boundary?

4) What are the geologic differences between continental plates and oceanic plates? What is the major rock
type forming the deep-ocean basins? What is the major rock type forming the
core of all the continents? How is this
difference related to the depths of the oceans and the higher elevations of the
continents? Make sure that you use specific plates as examples of each. How are
the crustal plates related to the asthenosphere?

5) Sketch/diagram and label a divergent plate boundary – or – an oceanic-continental
convergent (subduction) plate boundary.
Make sure you show plate motion with arrows and give a geologic example
location. Name some geologic hazards that occur along this boundary type.

6) What are geologic
“hot spots”? Where are some prominent geological hot
spots? Describe one hot spot location in detail.