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A lithosphere is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of up to thousands of years or more. The crust and upper mantle are distinguished on the basis of chemistry and mineralogy.
The asthenosphere is the mechanically weak and ductile region of the upper mantle of Earth. It lies below the lithosphere, at a depth between c. 80 and 200 km below the surface, and extends as deep as 700 km (430 mi). However, the lower boundary of the asthenosphere is not well defined.
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second plate, the heavier plate dives beneath the other and sinks into the mantle. A region where this process occurs is known as a subduction zone, and its surface expression is known as an arc-trench complex. The process of subduction has created most of the Earth's continental crust. Rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year, with rates of convergence as high as 11 cm/year.
An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed, and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks.
Andesite is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predominantly of sodium-rich plagioclase plus pyroxene or hornblende.
The Mohorovičić discontinuity – usually called the Moho discontinuity, Moho boundary, or just Moho – is the boundary between the crust and the mantle of Earth. It is defined by the distinct change in velocity of seismic waves as they pass through changing densities of rock.
A craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of continents, cratons are generally found in the interiors of tectonic plates; the exceptions occur where geologically recent rifting events have separated cratons and created passive margins along their edges. Cratons are characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock, which may be covered by younger sedimentary rock. They have a thick crust and deep lithospheric roots that extend as much as several hundred kilometres into Earth's mantle.
Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramafic cumulates. The crust overlies the rigid uppermost layer of the mantle. The crust and the rigid upper mantle layer together constitute oceanic lithosphere.
Earth's crust is its thick outer shell of rock, referring to less than one percent of the planet's radius and volume. It is the top component of the lithosphere, a solidified division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. The lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates whose motion allows heat to escape the interior of Earth into space.
Don Lynn Anderson was an American geophysicist who made significant contributions to the understanding of the origin, evolution, structure, and composition of Earth and other planets. An expert in numerous scientific disciplines, Anderson's work combined seismology, solid state physics, geochemistry and petrology to explain how the Earth works. Anderson was best known for his contributions to the understanding of the Earth's deep interior, and more recently, for the plate theory hypothesis that hotspots are the product of plate tectonics rather than narrow plumes emanating from the deep Earth. Anderson was Professor (Emeritus) of Geophysics in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He received numerous awards from geophysical, geological and astronomical societies. In 1998 he was awarded the Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences along with Adam Dziewonski. Later that year, Anderson received the National Medal of Science. He held honorary doctorates from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Paris (Sorbonne), and served on numerous university advisory committees, including those at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago, Stanford, University of Paris, Purdue University, and Rice University. Anderson's wide-ranging research resulted in hundreds of published papers in the fields of planetary science, seismology, mineral physics, petrology, geochemistry, tectonics and the philosophy of science.
The East Australia hotspot is a volcanic province in southeast Australia which includes the Peak Range in central Queensland, the Main Range on the Queensland-New South Wales border, Tweed Volcano in New South Wales, and the Newer Volcanics Province (NVP) in Victoria and South Australia. A number of the volcanoes in the province have erupted since Aboriginal settlement. The most recent eruptions were about 5,600 years ago, and memories of them survive in Aboriginal folklore. These eruptions formed the volcanoes Mount Schank and Mount Gambier in the NVP. There have been no eruptions on the Australian mainland since European settlement.
Terry Ann Plank is an American geochemist, volcanologist and professor of earth science at Columbia College, Columbia University, and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. She is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her most prominent work involves the crystal chemistry of lava minerals in order to determine magma ages and movement, giving clues to how quickly magma can surface as lava in volcanoes. Most notably, Plank is known for her work establishing a stronger link between the subduction of ocean sediments and volcanism at ocean arcs. Her current work can be seen at her website.
Plank states that her interest in volcanoes began when her Dartmouth professor took her and other students to Arenal volcano in Costa Rica. He had them sit and have lunch while on top of a slow-moving lava flow and while watching bright red goops of lava crack out from their black casings. "It was totally cool, how could you not like that?" Plank recalled the event to State of the Planet, an Earth Institute News source at Columbia University.
Anthony Brian Watts FRS is a British marine geologist and geophysicist and Professor of Marine Geology and Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences, at the University of Oxford.
Albrecht Werner Hofmann is a German geochemist who is emeritus professor at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. He is best known for his contributions to the field of geochemistry.
Roberta L. Rudnick is an American earth scientist and professor of geology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and was awarded the Dana Medal by the Mineralogical Society of America. Rudnick is a world expert in the continental crust and lithosphere.
Stanley Robert Hart is an American geologist, geochemist, leading international expert on mantle isotope geochemistry, and pioneer of chemical geodynamics.
The plate theory is a model of volcanism that attributes all volcanic activity on Earth, even that which appears superficially to be anomalous, to the operation of plate tectonics. According to the plate theory, the principal cause of volcanism is extension of the lithosphere. Extension of the lithosphere is a function of the lithospheric stress field. The global distribution of volcanic activity at a given time reflects the contemporaneous lithospheric stress field, and changes in the spatial and temporal distribution of volcanoes reflect changes in the stress field. The main factors governing the evolution of the stress field are:
- Changes in the configuration of plate boundaries.
- Vertical motions.
- Thermal contraction.
Intraplate volcanism is volcanism that takes place away from the margins of tectonic plates. Most volcanic activity takes place on plate margins, and there is broad consensus among geologists that this activity is explained well by the theory of plate tectonics. However, the origins of volcanic activity within plates remains controversial.
Karen Fischer is an American seismologist known for her research on the structure of Earth's mantle, its lithosphere, and how subduction zones change over geologic history.
Catherine Chauvel is a geochemist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris known for her research on the impact of volcanic activity on the chemistry of the mantle, continental crust, and island arc geochemistry.
References
- 1 2 "Distinguished Professor Sue O'Reilly". Macquarie University. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
- ↑ "The Clarke Medal". The Royal Society of NSW. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- 1 2 3 4 "Professor Suzanne Yvette O'Reilly". Australian Academy of Science. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ↑ "O'Reilly, Suzanne Yvette (1946 - )". EOAS. Encyclopedia of Australian Science. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ↑ "1962 ISS Scholars" (PDF). Science Foundation for Physics. University of Sydney. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ↑ O'Reilly, Suzanne (1971). Studies on some basaltic rocks in New South Wales : aspects of basaltic igneous activity in the Southern Highlands, New South Wales,with particular emphasis on the tertiary alkali basaltic rocks & their mafic and ultramafic inclusions. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- 1 2 "Professor Sue O'Reilly". GEMOC ARC National Key Centre. Macquarie University. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ↑ "ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems". Macquarie University. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ↑ "Professor Suzanne Yvette O'Reilly". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ↑ "Fellows of The Geological Society of Australia" . Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ↑ "Fellows of The Royal Society of NSW". The Royal Society of NSW. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ↑ "Professor Suzanne Yvette O'Reilly". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
