Plate Tectonics

Plate Tectonics

Conservative
1. Where two plates slide past each other
  1. Two plates move past each other without converging or diverging
    1. There are earthquakes but no volcanoes
2. Rocks near plate margin are faulted and tilted
3. There is an earthquake zone near the plate margin
Constructive (Divergent)
1. Where two plates move away from each other
  1. Plates are pulled away from each other by convection currents
    1. New crust forms where it's been pulled away
      1. Basalt is formed there
2. It starts with the warping and stretching of a continent
  1. Then the formation of a rift valley
    1. A mid atlantic ridge is formed
Destructive (Convergent)
1. Where two plates move towards each other
2. Oceanic and Oceanic
  1. The older, denser oceanic plate will subduct beneath the less dense plate
    1. The melting of mantle material creates volcanoes at the subduction zone
3. Oceanic and Continental
  1. The denser plate (oceanic) subducts underneath the less dense plate (continental)
    1. The friction between the plates prevents the subducting oceanic plate from sliding smoothly
      1. it drags against the overlying plate, causing both to fracture and deform
        This results in frequent shallow focus earthquakes that get deeper as the ocean plate descends further
Subduction
1. Subduction is the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle undernearth another plate

Resource summary

	Created by Liffey Farrell over 7 years ago