Why can the rock cycle, including its surgace processes, be considered part of plate tectonics? Are there examples from each rock group in the explination?

-- Jenna Whitt (jmw3382@uncw.edu), September 27, 2004

Answers

The rock cycle is a consequence of plate tectonics. One could begin anywhere in the cycle to illustrate. Start at the passive eastern edge of North America in Cambrian time. The tectonic setting allowed for the quiet deposition and subsidence of calcareous sediments and lithification. During the island arc/continental collision of the Taconic orogeny, foreacrc basin sedimentary rocks are compressed, subducted and metamorphosed. A high mountain range remains at the suture, contributing large volumes of eroded material to the Queenston delta. This becomes sedimentary rock. The later Acadian orogeny brings granitization to New England as a consequence of plate subduction, another mountain range and eroded material for the Catskill delta. The final (Appalachian) east-coast orogeny thrusts Taconic formations (i.e. Manhattan schist) westward and closer to the surface where erosion has exposed them today.

-- peter matt (peter@mattbrothers.com), October 02, 2004.