7/31/2019 Plate Tectonic Theory States That the Earth

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7/31/2019 Plate Tectonic Theory States That the Earth

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Over millions of years, tectonic plates may move many hundreds of kilometers away from bothsides of a divergent plate boundary. Because of this, rocks closest to a boundary are youngerthan rocks further away on the same plate.

In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary (because

ofsubduction), is an actively deforming region where two (or more) tectonic plates or fragments of

lithosphere move toward one another and collide. As a result of pressure, friction, and plate materialmelting in the mantle, earthquakes and volcanoes are common near convergent boundaries. When two

plates move towards one another, they form either a subduction zone or a continental collision. This

depends on the nature of the plates involved. In a subduction zone, the subducting plate, which is

normally a plate with oceanic crust, moves beneath the other plate, which can be made of either oceanic

or continental crust. During collisions between two continental plates, large mountain ranges, such as the

Himalayas are formed.

Atransform fault or transform boundary, also known as conservative plate boundary since these

faults neither create nor destroy lithosphere, is a type offault whose relative motion is predominantly

horizontal in either sinistral or dextral direction. Furthermore, transform faults end abruptly and are

connected on both ends to other faults, ridges, or subduction zones.

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While most transform faults arehidden in the deep oceans where they form a series of short zigzags accommodating seafloor spreading

(see graphic at right), the most well-known (and destructive) are those on land at the margins oftectonic

plates. Transform faults are the only type of strike-slip fault that can be classified as a plate boundary.

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