Continental Drift 1 and 2

Question 1

Early Triassic 237 Ma

Answer 1

1. Pangea- pole to pole bridge series - very diversified habitat
2. Thethys sea- warm, lots of shallow areas
3. Large desert areas and swamps

Question 2

South Pacific Gyre

Answer 2

Antarctic circumpolar current (i.e. counter clockwise between Australia and south america and )
Caused by a west wind drift

Question 3

Mid miocene

Answer 3

Continents looks like today

Question 4

Antarctic circumpolar

Answer 4

counterclockwise around the antarctica

Westwind drift and eastwind drift causes rise in nutrient rich deepwater

Question 5

Little shrimp

Answer 5

Eaten by lots of different species (penguins, seals, gulls)

Question 6

Plate tectonic effects on antarctica

Answer 6

1) Ecologically suitable for warm temp organisms
2) change to cold and loss of warm temp organisms
3) appearance of cold tolerant animals
4) establishment of marine habitat that sponsored evolution of marine mammals and provided food for cold-tolerant animals found on land.

Question 7

Plate tectonics- ridges

Answer 7

Southeast indian ridge- south of austrailia
south west indian ridge- south of africa
Pacific antarctic ridge - just north of antarctica
Juan de Fuca ridge - west side of north america
East-pacific rise - east of South america
Mid atlantic ridge - middle of the atlantic
Central indian ridge - cuts between africa and south east Asia.

Question 8

Hydrothermal vents

Answer 8

Hot water plume eruptions: magma forces up at the bottom of sea floor, results in lots of heat, and minerals (Helium, magnesium, iron, methane, sulfate)

These hydrothermal vents may have started up life when the acidic sea water met with the alkaline fluid from earths crust.

Question 9

Alfred Wegener

Answer 9

proposed that continents moved based on distributions of fossils and living animals
ex.
-carabidae (beetle) found it very disjointed places ex. austrailia, south america new guinea
-tongueless frog (pipidae) found in africa, south america
They have no tonuge, rarely come out of water, and a lateral line (like fish)
-Proteaceae, flowering plants in southern hemisphere, found in africa, south american and austrailia

Question 10

What historic factors on earth could enable the movement of continents?

Answer 10

1) asteroid hit earth - formed moon and turned the earth into a ball of molten magma again
2) hot molten cooled at the surface but then continued moving below
3) the crust was thick and occasional magma upward bursts caused the upper later to shift and move

Question 11

Subduction

Answer 11

Plate producing and plate consuming sites

Question 12

Oceanic mid ridge

Answer 12

place for spreading and lengthening of the continent

Question 13

Meiji

Answer 13

An island that moved to the current location of hawaii

Question 14

Overall results of plate techtonics

Answer 14

1) new oceanic and terrestrial crustal places can be formed
2) oceanic and terrestrial plates can be lost (recycled)
3) terrestrial crustal areas will move as a result of oceanic plate production
4) direction and rate of movement will depend on nature and activity of adjacent oceanic plate production
5) plate movement can affect terrestrial and marine habitat, nature, climate and productivity.

Question 15

Rodinia

Answer 15

broke up in late proterozoic (650 Ma)

Question 16

Cambrian extinctions

Answer 16

Caused by glaciation:
evidence of continental glaciation at the cambrian-ordovician boundary
Cambrian fauna were intolerant of cooler conditions died- mass extinction

Question 17

Middle Ordovician 458 Ma

Answer 17

1) Gradual northward increase in terrestrial plate movement
2) tendency for breakup of southern hemisphere land masses -> increase of shallow water habitat
3) Appearance of a “tethys sea” separating Gondwana from future laurasia
4) another ice aga starting

Question 18

Ice ages

Answer 18

End of cambrian

Middle of ordovician

Question 19

Gondwana

Answer 19

Southernmost of the two supercontinents (northern one was Laurasia)

Question 20

Tethys Sea

Answer 20

oceanic area separating Gondwana from Laurasia

Warm sea with many shallow water areas

Question 21

Early Devonian 390 Ma

Answer 21

Palaeozoic oceans closing, forming a pre-Pangea. Freshwater fish able to migrate from southern hemisphere continents to north America and Europe.
Forest present (first time) in equatorial regions of Arctic Canada.

Question 22

Acanthostega

Answer 22

One of the first to have limbs

• had 8 digits on each hand, and were linked by webbing
• was well adapted for paddling or grabbing plants rather than walking on land

Question 23

Lung fishes

Answer 23

Found today in Africa, South America, Australia

-separate areas due to extinction of vicariance?

Question 24

Late Devonian 360 Ma

Answer 24

30% of animal families go extinct

Question 25

Late Permian 255 Ma

Answer 25

1) great increase in land area
2) tethys sea now contained
3) major extinction at the permo-triassic boundary
4) lots of bridges and barriers

Question 26

Permian-Triassic extinction

Answer 26

Great Dying occured 252 MYA
96% marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species goes extinct, 83% of insects went exctinct
Because of the huge loss of biodiversity the recovery took much longer (apprx 10 my)

Question 27

Early Triassic 237 Ma

Answer 27

1) Pangea (pole to pole bridge series) very diversified habitat
2) Tethys sea- warm lots of shallow areas
3) large desert areas and swamps

Question 28

Early Jurassic (195 Ma)

Answer 28

1) South-central Asia had assembled
2) Tethys ocean separated the northern continents from Gondwana
3) First indication of continental breakup