Question

Use Google Earth to look up the following places. Which tectonic environment does each place belong to? In one or two sentences, explain what makes you think so. Galleries and for overseas Territory 3 Aleutian USA 4 Mount Vesuvius, Italy 5. Mount Etna, Italy 6. Chaine des Puys, France 7. Azores Islands, Portugal 8. Canary Islands, Spain 9. Pyrenees Mountains, Spain-France 10. Iceland

Answer 1

5. Tectonic environment of Mount Etna is subduction zone which is formed where the Eurasian plate collides with African plate . Basically it is formed from the decompressional melting of upper mantle flowing around the edge of the ionian slab which is sinking slowly into the earth's mantle.

6. Tectonic environment of Chaine design Puys is a volcanic province in the Limagne fault tectonic area. Thinning of crust and upwelling of Asthenosphere has formed the rising mantle diapir , thus the formation of Strombolian and pelean type of eruptions.

7. Tectonic environment of Azores island is a triple junction between North America, African and Eurasian plate. Basically it is a spreading centre which is bound by the Mid Atlantic ridge and Terceira Rift and east Azores Fracture zone.

8. Tectonic environment of Canary island is passive continental margin . As the African plate moves eastward ,it has formed the Canary Islands not in the middle atlantic ridge, but on a weak spot on earth's crust where the American and European plates arare moving apart.

9. Tectonic environment of Pyrenees Mountains is the collision zone between microcontinent Iberia and the southwestern part of European plate. Due to the change in the direction of plate movement , the closure of the ocean between the Iberia peninsula and southern France, the continental plates collided which lead to the uplift of pyrenees mountains.

10. Tectonic environment of Iceland is divergent spreading boundary between Eurasian plate and North American plate and also the hotspot or mantle plume of Iceland itself. Iceland is located above the Mid Atlantic ridge which arose from the hotspot beneath Iceland around the time when both the above mentioned plates separated and see floor spreading started in the Northeast part of Atlantic.