HARYANA – GEOGRAPHY

LECTURE: 4 DISTRIBUTION OF OCEANS AND CONTINENTS

DISTRIBUTION OF OCEANS AND CONTINENTS
• Continents cover 29 per cent of the surface of the earth and the remainder is under oceanic waters.
• The positions of the continents and the ocean bodies, as we see them in the map, have not been the
same in the past.
• Moreover, it is now a well-accepted fact that oceans and continents will not continue to enjoy their
present positions in times to come.
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
• Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on Earth's surface.
• Abraham Ortelius a Dutch map maker in 1596 first proposed the possibility of two Americas, Europe
and Africa to be joined together.
• Antonio Peregrine drew a map showing the three continents together.
• Alfred Wegener a German meteorologist put forth ‘The Continental Drift Theory’ in 1912.
▪ All continents formed a single continental mass surrounded by the mega ocean. It was a super
continent called PANGAEA.
▪ All oceans formed a single mega ocean called PANTHALASSA.
▪ Around 200 million years ago the Pangaea began to split into two large masses called Laurasia and
Gondwana land forming the northern and southern components.
▪ These masses continued to break into various smaller continents that exist today.

EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT

The Matching of Continents (Jig-Saw Fit)

• The shorelines of South America and Africa have a remarkable

match.
• Bullard in 1964 produced a map using a computer programme
to find the best fit of the Atlantic margin.
• It was tried at 1000 fathom line instead of the present shoreline.
Rocks of Same Age Across The Oceans
• Wegener discovered that identical rocks could be found on both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean. These rocks were the same type and
the same age.
• He understood that the rocks had formed side-by-side and that
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the land has since moved apart.

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 • The belt of ancient rocks of 2,000 million years from Brazil coast matches with those from western
Africa.
• The earliest marine deposits along the coastline of South America and Africa are of the Jurassic age.
But that are now on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
• The Appalachians of the eastern United States and Canada, for example, are just like mountain ranges
in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway.
• Wegener concluded that they formed as a single mountain range that was separated as the continents
drifted.
Tillite
• It is the sedimentary rock formed out of deposits of glaciers.
• At the base the system has thick Tillite indicating
extensive and prolonged glaciations.
• Sediments from India have similar counter parts in
different landmasses of southern hemisphere -
Africa, Falklands, Madagascar, Antarctica and
Australia.
• The glacial tillite indicates unambiguous evidence
of palaeoclimates and drifting of continents.
Placer Deposits
• In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of valuable minerals formed by gravity
separation during sedimentary processes.
• Formation of placer deposits of gold in Ghana
coast has no source rock.
• The gold bearing veins of rocks are found in
Brazil which makes it obvious that the gold
deposits of the Ghana are derived from the
Brazil plateau when the two continents lay
side by side.
Distribution of fossils
• Fossils are the preserved traces of animals or plants found inside rock.
• They are useful in dating geological
material, because they indicate which
species were alive at the time the rock was
formed.
• Identical species of animals and plants are
found along the coastal regions of
different continents.
• Mesosaurus was a small reptile adapted to
shallow brackish water whose skeletons
are found only in two localities - the Southern Cape province of South Africa and Iraver formations of
Brazil - which are presently 4,800 km apart with an ocean in between them.
FORCE FOR DRIFTING
• As per Wegener, the drifting of the continents was caused by pole-fleeing force and tidal force.
▪ Polar-fleeing force relates to the rotation of the earth.
▪ Tidal force is due to the attraction of the moon and the sun that develops tides in oceanic waters.
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• Wegener believed that these forces would become effective when applied over many million years.

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 • However, most of the scholars considered these forces to be totally inadequate.
POST-DRIFT STUDIES
• The information collected from the ocean floor mapping provided new dimensions for the study of
distribution of oceans and continents.
Convectional Current Theory
• Arthur Holmes in 1930s discussed the possibility of convection currents operating in the mantle
portion.
• These currents are generated due to radioactive elements causing thermal differences in the mantle
portion.
• Holmes argued that there exists a system of such currents in the entire mantle portion.
• This was an attempt to provide an explanation to the issue of force, on the basis of which contemporary
scientists discarded the continental drift theory.
Mapping of the Ocean Floor
• After detailed research of the ocean configuration it was revealed that the ocean floor is not just a vast
plain but it is full of relief.
• Expeditions to map the oceanic floor have provided a detailed picture of the ocean relief.
• Existence of submerged mountain ranges as well as deep trenches has been found.
• The mid-oceanic ridges were found to be most active in terms of volcanic eruptions.
• Rocks on either side of the crest of oceanic ridges and having equi-distant locations from the crest were
found to have remarkable similarities both in terms of their constituents and their age.
OCEAN FLOOR CONFIGURATION
• The ocean floor may be segmented into three major
divisions based on the depth as well as the forms of
relief.
• These divisions are continental margins, deep-sea
basins and mid-ocean ridges.
Continental Margins
• These form the transition between continental shores
and deep-sea basins.
• They include continental shelf, continental slope, continental rise and deep-oceanic trenches.
• The deep-oceanic trenches are of considerable interest in so far as the distribution of oceans and
continents is concerned.
Abyssal Plains
• These are extensive plains that lie between the continental margins and mid-oceanic ridges.
• The abyssal plains are the areas where the continental sediments that move beyond the margins get
deposited.
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 Mid-Oceanic Ridges
• It is an interconnected chain of mountain system within the ocean.
• It is the longest mountain-chain on the surface of the earth though submerged under the oceanic
waters.
• It is characterised by a central rift system at the crest, a fractionated plateau and flank zone all along
its length.
• The rift system at the crest is the zone of intense volcanic activity.
DISTRIBUTION OF EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES
• The foci of the earthquake in the areas of mid-oceanic ridges are at shallow depths whereas along the
Alpine-Himalayan belt as well as the rim of the Pacific, the earthquakes are deep-seated ones.
• The rim of the Pacific is also called rim of fire due to the existence of active volcanoes in this area.

CONCEPT OF SEA FLOOR SPREADING

• The mapping of the ocean floor and paleo-magnetic studies of rocks from oceanic regions revealed the
following facts:
▪ All along the mid-oceanic ridges, volcanic eruptions are common and they bring huge amounts
of lava to the surface in this area.
▪ The rocks equidistant on either side of the crest of mid-oceanic ridges show remarkable
similarities in terms of period of formation, chemical compositions and magnetic properties.

• Rocks closer to the mid-oceanic ridges have normal polarity and are the youngest.
• The age of the rocks increases as one move away from the crest.
• The ocean crust rocks are much younger than the continental rocks.
▪ The age of rocks in the oceanic crust is around 200 million years old.
▪ The continental rock formations are as old as 3,200 million years.
• The sediments on the ocean floor are very thin and are around 200 million years old.
• The deep trenches have deep-seated earthquake occurrences while in the mid-oceanic ridge areas, the
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quake foci have shallow depths.

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 • The above facts and a detailed analysis of magnetic properties of the rocks on either side of the
mid-oceanic ridge led Hess (1961) to propose his hypothesis, known as the “Sea Floor
Spreading”.
▪ Constant eruptions at the crest of oceanic ridges cause the rupture of the oceanic crust and the
new lava wedges into it, pushing the oceanic crust on either side. The ocean floor, thus spreads.
▪ He further maintained that the ocean floor that gets pushed due to volcanic eruptions at the crest
sinks down at the oceanic trenches and gets consumed.

PLATE TECTONICS
• In 1967, McKenzie, Parker and Morgan,
independently collected the available ideas and came
out with another concept termed Plate Tectonics.
• A tectonic plate (also called lithospheric plate) is a
massive, irregularly-shaped slab of solid rock,
generally composed of both continental and oceanic
lithosphere.
• Plates move horizontally over the asthenosphere as
rigid units.
• The lithosphere includes the crust and top mantle
with its thickness ranging between 5 and100 km in
oceanic parts and about 200 km in the continental
areas.
• A plate may be referred to as the continental plate or oceanic plate depending on which of the two
occupy a larger portion of the plate.
• Pacific plate is largely an oceanic plate whereas the Eurasian plate may be called a continental plate.
• The theory of plate tectonics proposes that the earth’s lithosphere is divided into seven major and
some minor plates.
• The major plates are surrounded by Young Fold Mountain ridges, trenches, and/or faults.
• The major plates are as follows:
▪ Antarctica and the surrounding oceanic plate.
▪ North American (with western Atlantic floor separated from the South American plate along the
Caribbean islands) plate.
▪ South American (with western Atlantic floor separated from the North American plate along the
Caribbean islands) plate.
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▪ Pacific plate.
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▪ India-Australia-New Zealand plate.

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 ▪ Africa with the eastern Atlantic floor plate.
o Eurasia and the adjacent oceanic plate

• Some important minor plates are:

▪ Cocos plate: Between Central America and Pacific plate
▪ Nazca plate: Between South America and Pacific plate
▪ Arabian plate: Mostly the Saudi Arabian landmass
▪ Philippine plate: Between the Asiatic and Pacific plate
▪ Caroline plate: Between the Philippine and Indian plate (North of New Guinea)
▪ Fuji plate: North-east of Australia
• These plates have been constantly moving over the globe throughout the history of the earth.

PLATE BOUNDARIES
Divergent Boundaries
• The sites where the plates move away from each other and generate new crust are called spreading
sites.
• The best-known example of divergent boundaries is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
• Here the American Plate(s) is/are separated from the Eurasian and African Plates.
Convergent Boundaries
• It is here that the crust is destroyed as one plate dived under another.
• The location where sinking of a plate occurs is called a subduction zone.
• There are three ways by which convergence can occur:
▪ Between an oceanic and continental plate;
▪ Between two oceanic plates; and
▪ Between two continental plates.
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 Transform Boundaries
• Where the crust is neither produced nor destroyed as the plates slide horizontally past each other.
• Transform faults are the planes of separation generally perpendicular to the mid-oceanic ridges.
• Since the eruptions do not take place along the entire crest at the same time, there is a differential
movement of a portion of the plate away from the axis of the earth.
• The rotation of the earth also has its effect on the separated blocks of the plate portions.
RATES OF PLATE MOVEMENT
• The strips of normal and reverse magnetic field parallel to the mid-oceanic ridges help in determining
the rates of plate movement.
• The Arctic Ridge has the slowest rate (less than 2.5 cm/yr).
• The East Pacific Rise near Easter Island, in the South Pacific about 3,400 km west of Chile, has the
fastest rate (more than 15 cm/yr).
Force for the Plate Movement
• The fact that the plates move is now a well-accepted fact.
• The mobile rock beneath the rigid plates is believed to be moving in a circular manner.
• The heated material rises to the surface, spreads and begins to cool, and then sinks back into deeper
depths.
• This cycle is repeated over and over to generate a convection cell or convective flow.
• Heat within the earth comes from two main sources: radioactive decay and residual heat.
• The slow movement of hot, softened mantle that lies below the rigid plates is the driving force behind
the plate movement.
MOVEMENT OF THE INDIAN PLATE
• The Indian plate includes Peninsular India and the Australian continental portions.
• The subduction zone along the Himalayas forms the northern plate
boundary in the form of continent— continent convergence.
• The eastern margin is a spreading site lying to the east of Australia
in the form of an oceanic ridge in SW Pacific.
• The Western margin follows Kirthar Mountain of Pakistan.
• The boundary between India and the Antarctic plate is also marked
by oceanic ridge (divergent boundary) running in roughly W-E
direction and merging into the spreading site, a little south of New
Zealand.
• India was a large island situated off the Australian coast, in a vast
ocean.
• India is supposed to have started her northward journey about 200
million years ago at the time when Pangaea broke.
• The two major plates were separated by the Tethys Sea and the
Tibetan block was closer to the Asiatic landmass.
• During the movement of the Indian plate towards the Eurasian
plate, a major event that occurred was the outpouring of lava and formation of the Deccan Traps.
• This started somewhere around 60 million years ago and continued for a long period of time.
• From 40 million years ago and thereafter, the event of formation of the Himalayas took place.
• Scientists believe that the process is still continuing and the height of the Himalayas is rising even to
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this date.
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