Plate Tectonics Map Project 

 

 

Your Goal:

 

Create your own fictional world complete with continents, oceans, tectonic plates, mountains, earthquakes, volcanoes, and other evidence of the past.  Your world will have its own fictional history that explains the locations of these detailed features.  You will create a Mercator Projection Map (rectangular map of a spherical planet like the one above) that illustrates all of the features of your world.  Your map must be large (something like poster board size will do) and you will be graded highly on creativity and effort.  Maps can be 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional. 

 

 

Step One:

 

Begin brainstorming what your world is going to look like. Create a small "sketch" map as a rough draft.

 

Decide what the major continents (at least 7) are and name them.  You'll choose continental margins (shapes) that reflect on a long geologic past of plate movements, collisions, and changes.  The location of the continents should also start to tell a story of the past. 

 

Depending on where your continents are choose oceans and name them.  Once you have these drawn out in a sketch add plate margins and name the tectonic plates that are created by where you place your boundaries.  Remember that you can have oceanic-oceanic, oceanic-continental, and continental-continental margins.  In other words the "lines" of your plates can go anywhere on the map, through continents and/or oceans.  You'll address what features you'd find across your world later on. 

 

Start to think about where divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries will be located.  For example if you have two continents that "fit together," once were joined, and are now moving away from one another you'll place a divergent boundary between them.  This is important especially for the large tectonic plates on your map.  You may have to make changes to your world if you find inconsistencies.  Use a pencil!

 

You will continue to add details to the rough draft sketch that you've now created throughout the week.  Your rough draft sketch will be checked in class tomorrow for a grade.

 

 

 

Step Two:

 

Start marking divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries on your map.  Reference Global Map of Plate Boundaries on the Wiki to help you.  Remember that different sides of a single plate could be moving in several different directions.  Look at the Pacific Plate for example.  Your world is one giant puzzle and your plates are puzzle pieces, think about this when you consider where plates are moving.  Ex. A plate moving in a relative northward direction is probably colliding with a plate to the north of it as well as pulling away (diverging) from a plate to the south of it.

 

 

Using the completed assignment "Types of Plate Boundaries" (under Section 4 on the main page) start deciding what types of features you are going to find along your plate boundaries.  For example, if you have a divergent boundary between two oceanic plates (look up Divergent: Oceanic-Oceanic on your worksheet) you'll find that you should place a Mid-Ocean Ridge along this boundary.  When you're done you should have identified at least one of each of the 9 combinations on your old worksheet.

 

Make notes on your map where you'd find: Mid-Ocean Ridges, Earthquake/Fault Zones, Volcanoes, Rift Valleys, Deep Ocean Trenches, Volcanic Mts. (land), Island Arcs, Undersea Volcanoes, Mountains, Rift Zones, etc.  Note that your maps may change slightly depending on your results. 

 

Ex. If you find an Oceanic-Oceanic Convergent boundary you might add an Island Arc (like Japan) to your world near that boundary.

 

You may also add "Ancient" mountains that exist on your continents from earlier continental movements.  These mountains may be used as evidence to piece the continents together.  (Note: they should have a different symbol in your key than modern folded mountains caused by plate collisions)

 

 

Step Three:

 

You should now have most of the major features on your map.  You can make changes and additions to your map until it is time to create a final draft.

 

Today you should start two steps:

 

1.) Design 5 species of life that once colonized your world.  They should be varied and can include plants, animals, fungi, or bacteria.  You need to create sketches of these organisms a.) alive and b.) fossilized (these can be tracks, leaf impressions, or any type of fossils).  Distribute the locations of these fossils on your continents.  This distribution should be reminiscent of Wegener's discoveries that reinforced the idea of continental drift.  In other words they should represent evidence that your continents were once formed into a super continent.  These sketches (10) and the distributions will be included on your final map.

 

2.)  Your maps are getting somewhat "busy" with all of the details/features.  Start building a key that will code symbols for the features on your map.  For example, you should create a symbol for where your 5 fossils are found on the map.  You should also create symbols for earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, types of plate boundaries, etc.  The goal is to present as many details as possible on your final map while doing so in a clear and concise manner.

 

 

Step Four:

 

Now identify areas of Normal, Reverse, and Strike-Slip faulting.  Use your fault block models to review faults.  Remember that Normal faults (hanging wall moves down relative to the foot wall) are found at divergent boundaries, Reverse faults (hanging wall moves up relative to the foot wall) are found at convergent boundaries, and Strike-Slip faults are found at Transform boundaries.  Normal faults usually cause weak, shalllow earthquakes.  Reverse faults cause strong, deep earthquakes.  Strike-slip faults generally cause moderate earthquakes.  Use this information to add symbols for shallow, moderate, and deep earthquakes to the Key you started in Step 3.  Find the locations of these earthquakes and add these symbols to your map.

 

You should finish your rough drafts by adding areas of coal deposits (these would appear near areas of fossilized plants), petroleum/natural gas deposits (these would appear in folds of rock where aquatic ocean life lived and died, some areas that are now land and some areas still covered by oceans) and glacial striations (these are glacial scratches like the ones in Central Park in NYC, they were used like fossils to put the continent puzzle together).  Glacial striations should be found on continents that were once or are currently near your poles.

 

 

 

 

What Should Your Final Map Look Like?

 

• Maps should be the size of poster board or slightly smaller, depending on your supplies
• Maps can be 2D or 3D (advanced)
• Maps should include labeled continents, oceans, and plates.
• All of the features described above should be in your Key and placed appropriately on your map
• Find a location on your map where "not a lot is going on" to place your Key and your small Species/Fossil Drawings and Descriptions
• I would also like you to include a small drawing of your "Original Super Continent"
• Final map should be in full color, neat, organized, and presented in a professional manner (remember this project is in place of a unit test)