How many tectonic plates are there?
52
What are the 7 major plates
Pacific North American South American African Eurasian Indo-Australian Antarctic
How many minor tectonic plates are there
8
What are the names of the minor tectonic plates
Caribbean Cocos Arabian Juan de Fuca Scotia Indian Nazca Philippine
many or few microplates?
many
Three examples of tectonic hazards
Earthquakes
Volcanic Eruptions
Tsunamis
What three things cause the largest consequences from tectonic hazards
active tectonic plate boundaries
high population density
medium/high development
How do we describe the global pattern/distribution of tectonic activity?
Pattern
general statements about distribution in terms of lines, bands, clusters and whether it happened on the plate boundary or not
Detail
specific facts e.g it is a destructive boundary between the Nazca and South American Plate
Anomalies
outliers, such as hotspots in the interior of plates
What are the causes of tectonic hazards
- tectonic plates move in different directions and different speeds, creating different types of plate boundary and therefore variations in earthquake and volcanic activity
- or tectonic hazards in the middle of plates
- the earthquakes here are due to ancient faults which cause solid crust cracking over millions of years
- volcanic activity (hotspots) happen here due to upwelling of hot molten material from core/mantle boundary or from top of huge mantle plume just under the crust (Nyiragongo, African Plate)
-meteorites can also cause symmetrical hot spots on opposite sides of the planet
