Placas Tectonicas

PLACAS TECTONICAS
Name:____________________

Rare Earth Lab
Global Topography and Tectonic Plates

The goal of this lab is to investigate global topographic (ie land surface) features anddiscover how they relate to tectonic features, especially the tectonic plates and their boundaries.

There are a surprising number of interesting and unusual features hidden in the familiar maps we lookat every day. Many of these topographic features can be explained as a result of present-day plate motions, but the origin of some features are still obscure or poorly understood. The followingquestions and exercises are intended to encourage and guide your exploration of Earth’s global topography and the tectonic plates, and point out some interesting features. The questions are intended asstarting points for exploration rather than as an end in themselves.

Please do not consult a map of known plate boundaries while working on this exercise. The point is not to create a perfect map ofwhat other scientists have deduced, but to see what you can deduce for yourself, and how much you can learn while doing so. I think you’ll be surprised at what you can find!

Obtain a copy of thedigital topographic map of the Earth available in lab. These maps can now be created very rapidly and accurately from an orbiting satellite. A radar beam is used to measure the elevation of the landsurface directly. High precision, multiple-averaged measurements of sea surface elevation are used to derive the sea floor topography; these are combined with a growing body of sonar mapping data.Imagine you’re orbiting an unknown planet and your computer has just generated this map. How much can you deduce about the tectonics of the planet from this data?


TO DO

1. Place a tracing paperoverlay on the map. You may need to trim and piece together your tracing paper to get full coverage. Tape the tracing paper to the map along the top edge only; this will allow you to lift the tracing...