View of the planet Earth from the Apollo spacecraft. The Red Sea, which separates Saudi Arabia from the continent of Africa, is clearly visible at the top. (Photograph courtesy of NASA.) Contents Preface Historical perspective Developing the theory Understanding plate motions Hotspots : Mantle thermal plumes Some unanswered questions Plate tectonics and people Endnotes This book was originally ...

Plate Tectonics, the Cause of Earthquakes The plates consist of an outer layer of the Earth, the lithosphere, which is cool enough to behave as a more or less rigid shell. Occasionally the hot asthenosphere of the Earth finds a weak place in the lithosphere to rise buoyantly as a plume, or hotspot. The satellite image below shows the volcanic islands of the Galapagos hotspot. (from NASA) Only ...

Articles, animated gifs, video, and links about plate tectonics.

GPS TIME SERIES The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of 24 satellites which is used for navigation and precise geodetic position measurements. Daily position estimates are determined from satellite signals which are recorded by GPS receivers on the ground. Data from a global receiver network were collected by the International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS) and analyzed at ...

Central Washington University's Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array web page ...

By Keyword Home The Story of Plate Tectonics The story of Plate Tectonics is a fascinating story of continents drifting majestically from place to place breaking apart, colliding, and grinding against each other; of terrestrial mountain ranges rising up like rumples in rugs being pushed together; of oceans opening and closing and undersea mountain chains girdling the planet like seams on a ...

Article by Ludwig Combrinck includes illustrations.

Weldon Beauchamp Cornell University-Department of Geological Sciences Tectonic Evolution of the Atlas Mountains, North Africa Research Objectives: Studies of the tectonic history of the Atlas mountains, using a geographical information system (GIS) to integrate:geophysics , field geology and remote sensing data. This research is in collaboration with : ONAREP- Office National de Recherches et ...