A team of researchers at the University of Adelaide created an updated map of Earth’s tectonic plates. It will provide a better understanding of natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes occurring along plate boundaries.
Key Highlights
- The cratons of our modern continents formed more than 3.2 billion years ago.
- Over time, more and more crustal fragments formed, pushed together by convection currents in Earth’s mantle, forming the first supercontinent called Vaalbara.
- Over the times, Vaalbara broke apart, forming a subset of smaller continents.
- In the last 3 billion years a number of supercontinents formed and broke apart again, with the most recent being Pangea, a supercontinent existing from 335 to 65 million years ago.
- Today Earth’s crust consists of eight large tectonic plates and various microplates.
To create the map, the team combined three geological models:
- A plate model based on already known plate boundaries: This model can be used to improve models of risks from geohazards.
- A province model based on the geology of of Earth’s surface: It can be used to improve prospecting for minerals.
- An orogeny model with areas deformed by mountain-building processes: This model helps understand the geodynamic systems and better model Earth’s evolution.
New plate model
- The new plate model includes several new microplates including the Macquarie microplate which sits south of Tasmania and the Capricorn microplate that separates the Indian and Australian plates.
GS TIMES UPSC PRELIMS & MAINS CURRENT AFFAIRS BASED BASICS DAILY ONLINE TEST CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZ FOR STATE CIVIL SERVICES
MORE THAN 30 QUESTIONS FORM GS TIMES UPSC 2022 PRELIMS CURRENT AFFAIRS DAILY TEST
