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Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Continental Drift
Members of the L6 attended a lecture organised by Cambridge Physics Centre at the Cavendish Laboratories, Cambridge. The title of the talk was Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Continental Drift: this was delivered by Dr Alan Smith. Dr Smith works in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. His main areas of research are Geodynamics, Geophysics and Tectonics with a particular interest in Global Continental Reconstructions.
The lecture covered the concepts behind plate movements and the effects that relative motions have at plate boundaries. The origins of volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunami, mid-ocean ridges and mountain ranges were all explained.
A particularly clear computer animation, with a number of variable parameters, was demonstrated; this allowed the viewer to wind the Earth backwards or forward through time, observing the movements of the continents, tracking them back to their original positions in the unified land mass of Pangaea. The amazingly separate origins of the two halves of the British Isles, along with collision between India and the rest of Asia, was one of the most impressive observations.
