PLATE TECTONIC THEORY

EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT ARCHITECTURE

ASSIGNMENT - 1

SHWETA.P.N - SHALINI.P
2018701560-2018701558
INTRODUCTION
LAYERS OF THE EARTH
Structure of the Earth Mantle

The Earth is made up of 3 main layers:

● Crust - The crust is a solid layer of

rock on the surface of the planet. The
thickness varies between 3 and 30
miles.
● Mantle - The mantle is a semi-liquid
layer of magma, or molten rock, that
moves due to convection currents.
● Core - The outer core is the liquid
part of the core which has a similar
composition to the inner core.The
inner core is the solid part at the
center of the Earth. It is made of iron
and nickel and has temperatures
reaching 5,500°C.
Earth's outer skin is not a continuous
surface. Instead, it is composed of massive
segments called tectonic plates.
Earthquakes occur along the boundaries
between tectonic plates or at the site of
cracks within the plates

The Earth’s crust is made of:

● Continental Crust
○ thick (10-70 km)
○ dense (sinks under than oceanic crust)
○ mostly old
● Oceanic Crust
○ thin (~7 km)
○ buoyant (less dense continental crust)
○ young
 Crust

Mantle

Made of silicate rocks and

oxides; slightly dense; rigid.
(2.67-3.3 g/cm3 )

Made mostly of silicates of

magnesium and iron; moderately
dense. Behaves like melted plastic
in upper-most section (5.5 g/cm3 ) Outer Core Molten Iron, very
dense (12 g/cm3 )

Inner Core
Solid Iron; extremely
dense (17 g/cm3 )
INTRODUCTION
THE BEGINNING
Earth’s Tectonic Plates
During the 1950s and early 1960s, scientists set up seismograph networks to see if enemy nations were testing atomic bombs.
These seismographs also recorded all of the earthquakes around the planet. The seismic records could be used to locate an
earthquake’s epicenter, the point on Earth’s surface directly above the place where the earthquake occurs.

Earthquake epicenters outline the plates. Mid-ocean ridges, trenches, and large faults mark the edges of the plates, and this is
where earthquakes occur. The lithosphere is divided into a dozen major and several minor plates. The plates’ edges can be
drawn by connecting the dots that mark earthquakes’ epicenters. A single plate can be made of all oceanic lithosphere or all
continental lithosphere, but nearly all plates are made of a combination of both.
 In 1912 Alfred Wegener published a theory to
explain why the Earth looked like a huge jigsaw. He
believed the continents were once joined forming a
supercontinent he called Pangaea. Over 180 million
years ago this supercontinent began to “break up”
due to continental drift.

According to Wegener, the continents drifted in

two directions:

● Towards the equator

● Towards the west

He postulated that all the earth’s land had

once been joined into a single supercontinent
surrounded by an ocean. He named this landmass
“Pangaea” ( pan = all, Gaea = earth) and the
ocean “Panthalassa” (pan = all, Thalassa = ocean).
According to the theory, this continental mass
started breaking up about 200 million years ago.
Since then the pieces had moved to their
present positions and are still moving.
INTRODUCTION
TECTONIC PLATE -MOVEMENT
Tectonic plates
Earth’s surface appears to
be still, but it is actually
constantly on the move. Its
outer shell is made up of huge
slabs of moving rock called
tectonic plates. The plates fit
together like puzzle pieces to
make up earth’s surface. Their
movement changes the planet’s
features, depending on how the
plates meets. Some plates are
crunching together, and may
form mountains. Others are
splitting apart. Some plates
grind past each other. These are
the most likely to cause
earthquakes. Movement of the
plates over Earth’s surface is
termed plate tectonics.

Tectonic plates move on

average about 1 inch per
year - this is about as fast
as a fingernail grows
 The Earth’s crust is divided into 12 major plates which are moved in various directions. The plates collide, pull
apart, or scrape against each other. Each motion causes different types of features on the Earth’s crust. The word,
tectonic, refers to changes in the crust because of plate interaction.
Tectonic plates can move and float, even with their tremendous
weight. They can do this by the composition of continental rocks.
Continental rocks are much lighter than ordinary rocks, thus
meaning the crust under the continents is different. For example the
crust under the continents are approximate to 100 km's, where as in
comparison, the crust under the oceans is generally only about 5 km
thick.
Convection, or the flow of
mantle material
transporting heat, drives
plate tectonics. As
envisioned in the current
research, heating at the
base of the mantle
reduces the density of
the material, giving it
buoyancy and causing it
to rise through the
mantle and couple with
the overlying plates
adjacent to the East
Pacific Rise. The deep
mantle-derived
buoyancy, together with
plate cooling at the
surface, creates negative
buoyancy that together
explain the observations
along the East Pacific
Rise and surrounding
Pacific subduction zones.
How Plates Move
1. Hot mantle from the two adjacent cells rises at the ridge axis, creating new ocean
crust.
2. The top limb of the convection cell moves horizontally away from the ridge crest, as
does the new seafloor.
3. The outer limbs of the convection cells plunge down into the deeper mantle,
dragging oceanic crust as well. This takes place at the deep sea trenches.
4. The material sinks to the core and moves horizontally.
5. The material heats up and reaches the zone where it rises again.
Mechanisms for Plate Motion
Plates are only moved by the traction caused by mantle convection, and that friction between the asthenosphere and
lithosphere pulls the lithosphere along as the mantle convects. The other side holds that traction plays only a minor role and that
ridge-push and slab-pull are more important
Kearey and Vine (1996) have listed some compelling arguments in favour of the ridge-push/slab-pull model:

● Plates that are attached to subducting slabs (e.g., Pacific, Australian, and Nazca Plates) move the fastest, and plates that are not
(e.g., North American, South American, Eurasian, and African Plates) move significantly slower.
● In order for the traction model to apply, the mantle would have to be moving about five times faster than the plates are moving
because the coupling between the partially liquid asthenosphere and the plates is not strong. Such high rates of convection are
not supported by geophysical models.
● Although large plates have the potential for much higher convection traction, plate velocity is not related to plate area.
INTRODUCTION
TECTONIC PLATE -BOUNDARIES
Plate boundaries are the edges where two
plates meet. Most geologic activities, including
volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountain
building, take place at plate boundaries. Two
plates move relative to each other.

● Divergent plate boundaries: the

two plates move away from each
other.
● Convergent plate boundaries: the
two plates move towards each
other.
● Transform plate boundaries: the
two plates slip past each other.

The type of plate boundary and the type of

crust found on each side of the boundary
determines what sort of geologic activity will
be found there.
Divergent Plate Boundaries
Divergent boundaries are spreading boundaries, where new oceanic crust is created from magma
derived from partial melting of the mantle. The partial melting happens when hot mantle rock is moved from
deep within Earth where pressures are too high for it to be liquid, to shallower depths where the pressure is much
lower.

● Plates are moving apart from each other.

● We also term these sites spreading centers.
● Form what is known as a rift valley.
● It is at divergent plate boundaries where
new crust is created.

This is where plates move towards each other. It’s

also referred to as a destructive plate
boundary.Mountains are formed where plates collide
and the crust crumples up. The more the plates collide
the higher the mountain.Under the ocean one plate
often slips under another giving rise to huge trenches,
sometimes underwater volcanoes form when part of the
crust melts and erupts.

Incontinental rifting , magma rises beneath the

continent, causing it to become thinner, break, and
ultimately split apart. New ocean crust erupts in the void,
creating an ocean between continents.
Divergent Plate Boundaries

The triangular zone of partial melting near

the ridge crest is approximately 60 km thick and
the proportion of magma is about 10% of the rock
volume, thus producing crust that is about 6 km
thick once the melt escapes from the rock in
which it formed, and ascends. Most divergent
boundaries are located in the oceans, and the
crustal material created at a spreading boundary
is always oceanic in character.

When a series of mantle plumes exists

beneath a large continent, the resulting rifts may
align and lead to the formation of a rift valley, such
as the present-day Great Rift Valley in eastern
Africa. This type of valley may eventually develop
into a linear sea (such as the present-day Red Sea),
and finally into an ocean (such as the Atlantic). It is
likely that as many as 20 mantle plumes, many of
which still exist, were responsible for the initiation
of the rifting of Pangea along what is now the
mid-Atlantic ridge.

An example of this is the Japan Trench caused by

the Pacific plate diving under the North
American Plate. The Japan Trench is part of a ring
of undersea trenches in the Pacific.
Divergent Plate Boundaries
Plates move apart at mid-ocean ridges where new seafloor forms. Between the two plates is a rift valley. Lava flows at the
surface cool rapidly to become basalt, but deeper in the crust, magma cools more slowly to form gabbro. So the entire ridge system
is made up of igneous rock that is either extrusive or intrusive. Earthquakes are common at mid-ocean ridges since the movement
of magma and oceanic crust results in crustal shaking. The vast majority of mid-ocean ridges are located deep below the sea
Mid-Atlantic Ridge – this is a chain of mountains under the sea formed as the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate in the
North, and the South American and African Plates in the South move apart. This is a divergent plate boundary.
1. At a divergent boundary, two oceanic
plates pull apart from each other through a
process called sea-floor spreading.
2. Sea-floor spreading was proposed by Harry
Hess in the early 1960’s. Hess proposed that
hot magma rises from the asthenosphere
and up into existing ocean crust through
fractures. The crust spreads apart making
room for new magma to flow up through it.
The magma cools, forming new sea floor
and resulting in a build-up of basaltic rock
around the crack, which is called a
mid-ocean ridge.
3. Sea-floor Spreading at an oceanic divergent
boundary.
4. New material is constantly being created.
This is the opposite of a convergent
boundary, where material is constantly
being destroyed. Sea-floor spreading at an
oceanic divergent boundary.
5. The world’s longest mountain chain is
underwater. It is 56,000 km long and is
called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
6. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is considered a
slow-spreading ridge, spreading at about
1-2 centimeters per year.
7. An example of a fast-spreading ridge is the
East Pacific Rise, which spreads at about
6-8 centimeters per year. Mid-Atlantic
Ridge EastPacific Rise Satellite bathymetry
of the East Pacific Rise spreading ridge.
Convergent Plate Boundaries

Convergent boundaries, where two

plates are moving toward each other, are of
three types, depending on whether ocean or
continental crust is present on either side of the
boundary. The types are ocean-ocean,
ocean-continent, and continent-continent.

There are three styles of convergent

plate boundaries

● Continent-continent collision
● Continent-oceanic crust collision
● Ocean-ocean collision

When two plates converge, the result

depends on the type of lithosphere the plates
are made of. No matter what, smashing two
enormous slabs of lithosphere together results
in magma generation and earthquakes.
Convergent Plate Boundaries

Continent-continent collision

A continent-continent collision occurs when a continent or large island that has been moved along with subducting
oceanic crust collides with another continent. The colliding continental material will not be subducted because it is not dense
enough, but the root of the oceanic plate will eventually break off and sink into the mantle. There is tremendous deformation of
the pre-existing continental rocks, and creation of mountains from that rock, as well as from any sediments that had accumulated
along the shores of both continental masses, and commonly also from some ocean crust and upper mantle material.
Convergent Plate Boundaries
Continental plates are too buoyant to
Continent-continent collision subduct. Since it has nowhere to go but up, this
creates some of the world’s largest mountains
ranges. Magma cannot penetrate this thick crust
so there are no volcanoes, although the magma
stays in the crust. Metamorphic rocks are common
because of the stress the continental crust
experiences. With enormous slabs of crust
smashing together, continent-continent collisions
bring on numerous and large earthquakes.

The world’s highest mountains, the

Himalayas, are the result of the
collision of the Indian Plate with the
Eurasian Plate, seen in this photo from
the International Space Station.
Convergent Plate Boundaries

Continent-oceanic crust collision

At an ocean-continent convergent boundary, the oceanic plate is subducted beneath the continental plate in the same
manner as at an ocean-ocean boundary. Rocks and sediment on the continental slope are thrust up into an accretionary
wedge, and compression leads to faults forming within the continental plate . The mafic magma produced adjacent to the
subduction zone rises to the base of the continental crust and leads to partial melting of the crustal rock. The resulting magma
ascends through the crust, producing a mountain chain with many volcanoes.
Convergent Plate Boundaries
When oceanic crust converges with continental crust,
the denser oceanic plate plunges beneath the continental plate.
Continent-oceanic crust collision This process, called subduction, occurs at the oceanic trenches.
The entire region is known as a subduction zone. Subduction
zones have a lot of intense earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The subducting plate causes melting in the mantle. The magma
rises and erupts, creating volcanoes. These coastal volcanic
mountains are found in a line above the subducting plate. The
volcanoes are known as a continental arc.

Examples of ocean-continent convergent boundaries

are subduction of the Nazca Plate under South America
(which has created the Andes Range) and subduction Convergence has pushed up limestone in the Andes
of the Juan de Fuca Plate under North America Mountains where volcanoes are common.
(creating the mountains Garibaldi, Baker, St. Helens,
Rainier, Hood, and Shasta, collectively known as the
At the trench lining the western margin of South
Cascade Range). America, the Nazca plate is subducting beneath the
South American plate, resulting in the Andes
Mountains (brown and red uplands)
Convergent Plate Boundaries

Continent-oceanic crust collision

The movement of crust and magma causes earthquakes. This

animation shows the relationship between subduction of the lithosphere
and creation of a volcanic arc.

The volcanoes of northeastern California—Lassen Peak, Mount

Shasta, and Medicine Lake volcano—along with the rest of the Cascade
Mountains of the Pacific Northwest are the result of subduction of the
Juan de Fuca plate beneath the North American plate. The Juan de Fuca
plate is created by seafloor spreading just offshore at the Juan de Fuca
ridge.

The Sierra Nevada

batholith cooled
beneath a volcanic
arc roughly 200
million years ago.
The rock is well
exposed here at
Mount Whitney.
Similar batholiths
are likely forming
beneath the Andes
and Cascades
today. The Cascade Mountains of the Pacific
Northwest are a continental arc.
Convergent Plate Boundaries

Ocean-ocean collision
At an ocean-ocean convergent boundary, a plate margin consisting of oceanic crust and lithospheric mantle is
subducted, or travels beneath, the margin of the plate with which it is colliding. Often it is the older and colder plate that is
denser and subducts beneath the younger and hotter plate. Ocean trenches commonly form along these boundaries.

As the subducting crust is heated and the pressure increases, water is released from within the subducting material.
This water comes primarily from alteration of the minerals pyroxene and olivine to serpentine near the spreading ridge
shortly after the rock’s formation. The water mixes with the overlying mantle, which lowers the melting point of mantle rocks,
causing magma to form. This process is called flux melting or fluid-induced melting.
Convergent Plate Boundaries The newly produced magma, which is lighter than
the surrounding mantle rocks, rises through the mantle and
sometimes through the overlying oceanic crust to the ocean
Ocean-ocean collision floor where it creates a chain of volcanic islands known as an
island arc. A mature island arc develops into a chain of
relatively large islands (such as Japan or Indonesia) as more
and more volcanic material is extruded and sedimentary
rocks accumulate around the islands. The largest
earthquakes occur near the surface where the subducting
plate is still cold and strong.

When two oceanic plates Japan is an

converge, the older, denser plate will arc-shaped island
subduct into the mantle. An ocean trench arc composed of
marks the location where the plate is volcanoes off the
pushed down into the mantle. The line of Asian mainland, as
volcanoes that grows on the upper seen in this satellite
oceanic plate is an island arc. image.
Transform Plate Boundaries

Transform plate boundaries are seen

as transform faults, where two plates move
past each other in opposite directions.
Transform faults on continents bring
massive earthquakes.

This is where plates move sideways

past each other. The crust here isn’t
destroyed but the movement can still be
dangerous if the two plates lock together
causing tension and then snap suddenly
causing an earthquake.

Transform Boundary Transform boundaries exist

where two plates where one plate slides past another
meet and slide past without producing or destroying crust,
each other. except in the special case where the
transform boundary has bends and jogs.
There will be collisions and divergence
Friction from the on a small scale as the jogs crash into
plates rubbing the bends, or open up small windows to
against each other deeper crust.
causes earthquakes
 This map shows the three major plate
Transform Plate Boundaries boundaries in or near California.

California is very geologically

active. What are the three major plate
boundaries in or near California

1. A transform plate
boundary between the
Pacific and North
American plates creates
the San Andreas Fault, the
world’s most notorious
transform fault.
2. Just offshore, a divergent
plate boundary, Juan de
Fuca ridge, creates the
Juan de Fuca plate.
3. A convergent plate
boundary between the
Juan de Fuca oceanic plate
and the North American
continental plate creates
the Cascades volcanoes.

At the San Andreas Fault in California, the Pacific Plate is sliding northwest relative to
the North American plate, which is moving southeast. At the northern end of the
picture, the transform boundary turns into a subduction zone.
For western California, your left As you slide your hands laterally Eventually the weakest card face
hand represents the rigid Pacific past one another, a broad zone of (the San Andreas Fault)
Plate, while your right hand is like shearing develops as several card dominates within the broad
the unaffected part of the North faces slip. transform plate boundary.
American Plate.
FAULTS AND
FOLDS
Fault

Faults are cracks in the earth's crust along which there Normal Faulting
is movement. These can be massive (the boundaries between
the tectonic plates themselves) or very small. If tension builds
up along a fault and then is suddenly released, the result is an
earthquake.

Fractures are simply cracks in the crust where there is

no movement.

A fault is a break in the rocks that make up the earth's

crust, along which on either side rocks move past each other.
Larger faults are mostly from action occurring in earth's plates.
A fault line is the trace of a fault, or the line of intersection
between the fault line and the earth's surface.

Faults are classified according to the direction of

relative movement along the fault. The terms hanging wall and
foot wall refer to the relative position of the plates after
movement. Economic minerals often grow along faults, and
these terms come from where a miner would stand, and where
they would hang their lantern.
Normal faulting occurs when two
plates move away from each other, causing
one to slide down relative to the other.
Strike-Slip Faulting Reverse/Thrust Faulting

In strike-slip faulting, the two plates are When the plates are compressed, or pushed
moving horizontally past one another like cars together, reverse or thrust faulting occurs. This means
going in opposite directions on highway. that one plate was pushed up onto another plate.
Folds

Folds are one of the most common geological structures found

in rocks. When a set of horizontal layers are subjected to compressive
forces, they bend either upward or downward. The bend noticed in rocks
are called folds.
In terms of their nature too, folds may occur as single local
bends or may occur repeatedly and intricately folded to the tectonic
history of the region.

A fold is the deformation of a

planer body of rock into a curved body of
rock without appreciable thinning or
breaking. A fault is a break in a body of
rock along which one side has moved
relative to the other side. If no relative
motion has taken place the break is called
a joint.
A Fold is a permanent, wave-like
deformation in layered rock sediment. A
Fault is a fracture in bedrock along which
rocks on one side had moved relevant to
the other side.
Folds
During mountain building processes, rocks can undergo folding as well as faulting. Sometimes rocks
deform ductilely, particularly if they are subjected to heat and pressure. At elevated temperature and pressure
within the crust, folds can form from compressional forces. Entire mountain rages, like the Appalachians, have
extensive fold systems.

Z-fold in schist with white felsic dike (hammer for scale). Near Lake Murray, South Carolina. Large fold in outcrop (geologists
for scale). Near Oakridge, Tennessee, Appalachian Mtns.
Folding- Folding occurs when
tectonic processes put stress on a
rock, and the rock bends, instead of
breaking. This can create a variety of
landforms as the surfaces of the
folded rocks are eroded.

Anticlines are folds shaped like an

arch, and synclines are shaped like
the letter 'U.'

Geologists recognize these

formations by what is visible at the
surface. Look at the diagram of the
syncline and notice how the surface
shows a symmetrical pattern with
the youngest rock in the middle and
older rocks appearing on either side.
Notice that the opposite is true of
the anticline.
MOVEMENT
OVER
GEOLOGICAL
TIME
● Alfred Wegener proposed that all of the
continents once formed a “supercontinent”
called Pangaea.
● From the Greek language, ‘pan’ meaning ALL
and ‘gaea’ meaning EARTH.
● It was thought to have come together and
formed approximately 200 million years ago.
● Evidence for a supercontinent included:

1. Fossils of the same plant (Glossopteris) found

in Australia, India, Antarctica, and South
America.

2. Fossils of same reptile (Mesosaurus) found in

Africa and South America. This animal could
not have swum across the existing Atlantic
Ocean!

3. Glacial deposits found in current warm

climates and warm-climate plant fossils found
in what is now the Arctic.

4. Nearly identical rock formations found on

the east coast of U.S. and the west coast of
Europe and on eastern South America and
western Africa.
● looking at the remnant magnetism of
Phanerozoic British and European volcanic
rocks, and collecting paleomagnetic data.
● Using an analysis similar to that in Figure
4.8, they noticed that rocks of different ages
sampled from the same general area
showed very different magnetic pole
positions (the green line in Figure 4.9).
● They assumed this meant that Earth’s
magnetic pole had moved around
significantly over time along polar
wandering paths, rather than staying close
to the geographic north pole as it does
today.
● The polar wandering paths were not
actually records of the pole moving, they
just looked that way, so the paths are now
referred to as apparent polar wandering
paths (APWP).
● Subsequent paleomagnetic work showed
that unique apparent polar wandering
paths can be derived from rocks in South
America, Africa, India, and Australia.
● In 1956, Runcorn became a proponent of
continental drift. There was simply no other
way to explain the data.
● 1. About 1,100 million years ago, a super-
continent called Rodinia existed
(preCambrian).
● 2. Rodinia broke apart, and about 400
million years ago, the oceans began to
close up to form a pre-Pangea (early
Devonian).
● 3. Pangea formed around 250 million
years ago and animals could migrate from
the north to the south pole (Early Triassic).
FUTURE?
In 50 million years, it is possible that
the Mediterranean could close due to
the collision of Africa with Europe.
Australia may eventually join Asia. It is
though that in another 250 million
years, another Pangea will form.
Continents in the future?Continents in
the future?
CREATION AND CHANGE OF LANDFORM
CREATION AND
CHANGE OF
LANDFORM
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
● Most volcanoes form above
subduction zones because as one
slab is subducted beneath the other,
it causes melting, forming new
magma, which then rises upward.
● This is why most volcanoes are found
near plate boundaries. Volcanoes are
constructive because they add new
rock, form new islands, and create
new land masses.
● However, they are also destructive
when they erupt and change the
landscape (possibly even the climate).
● If magma is less viscous, or more
fluid, gases can escape easily from it.
● When this type of magma erupts, it
flows out of the volcano and violent
explosions are rare.
● Sometimes, huge clouds of ash race
down mountainsides destroying
almost everything in their path.
● These are pyroclastic clouds. They can
travel faster than a high-speed train.
● The ash produced from an eruption
will fall back to the ground and
suffocate humans, animals, and
plants.
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
● Being hot, magma is less dense than the solid
rock surrounding it.
● This enables the liquid magma to rise up through
cracks in the solid rock and collect in pockets
within the earth, called magma chambers.
● Eventually some of the magma pushes through
vents and fissures in Earth's surface, causing an
eruption that may be violent or quiet.
● Once the magma reaches the earth’s surface, it is
called lava.
● The explosiveness of an eruption depends on the
viscosity of the magma.
● Viscosity is the resistance of a liquid to flow. If the
magma is very thick and viscous, gases can build
up within the magma.
● Finally, when threshold is reached, there is a
violent eruption from the built up pressure of the
gases in the magma chamber.
● Most volcanoes form above subduction zones
because as one slab is subducted beneath the
other, melting occurs, forming new magma, which
then rises upward along the plate boundary.
CREATION AND
CHANGE OF
LANDFORM
MOUNTAIN BUILDING
EVENTS
CONTINENT - CONTINENT COLLISION
CONTINENT - CONTINENT COLLISION
● Mountain-building forces When
two continental plates collide at a
convergent boundary, the process
produces a mountain range.
● Compressional forces drive the
mountain building process. The
Appalachians, the Alps, and the
Himalayas were formed through
compression.
● The Himalayan mountain chain was
formed approximately 150 million
years ago.
● When we think of the Himalayas,
we think of very high, steep
mountains, cliffs, and, of course, Mt.
Everest. In contrast, when we
consider our own Appalachians,
which formed about 400 million
years ago, we see more subdued
topography than in the Himalayas.
● This is because the process of wind
and water erosion have eroded
hundreds of vertical feet of land
surface from the area and reduced
high jagged mountains into the
rolling hills present today.
Continent/ continent convergence The
Matterhorn, Alps The Appalachian
Mountains.
The Himalayan
mountain chain
TECTONICS AND
THE OCEAN
FLOOR
CONTINENTAL MARGINS
An active continental margin is found on the leading edge of the continent where it
is crashing into an oceanic plate. An excellent example is the west coast of South
America. Active margins are commonly the sites of tectonic activity: earthquakes,
volcanoes, mountain building, and the formation of new igneous rock. Because of the
mountainous terrain, most of the rivers are fairly short, and the continental shelf is
narrow to non-existent, dropping off quickly into the depths of the subduction trench.

Passive continental margins are found along the remaining coastlines. Because there is no collision or
subduction taking place, tectonic activity is minimal and the earth’s weathering and erosional processes are
winning. This leads to lots of low-relief (flat) land extending both directions from the beach, long river systems,
and the accumulation of thick piles of sedimentary debris on the relatively wide continental shelves. Again
South America provides a great example. The Amazon River, whose source is in the Andes Mountains (the
active margin) drains east across the interior of South America to the coast, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean
and deposits the tremendous volume of sedimentary materials it eroded from the continent. As such, passive
margins are sedimentary wedges that overlie an inactive and subsiding weld between rifted continental crust
and newly formed and younger oceanic crust.
continent - ocean plate collision
● Subduction
● Oceanic plates subducts
underneath the continental
plate
● Oceanic plate heats and melts
● The melt rises forming
volcanoes
● E.g. The Andes
Ocean - ocean plate collision
When two oceanic plates
converge, the older, denser plate
will subduct into the mantle. An
ocean trench marks the location
where the plate is pushed down
into the mantle. The line of
volcanoes that grows on the
upper oceanic plate is an island
arc.
● When two oceanic plates
collide, one runs over the other
which causes it to sink into the
mantle forming a subduction
zone.
● The subducting plate is bent
downward to form a very deep
depression in the ocean floor
called a trench.
● The world's deepest parts of the
ocean are found along trenches.
– E.g. The Mariana Trench is 11
km deep!
MARIANA TRENCH
Ocean - ocean plate collision
TRANSFORM
BOUNDARIES
● Transform boundaries exist where one plate
slides past another without producing or
destroying crust, except in the special case
where the transform boundary has bends and
jogs.
● There will be collisions and divergence on a small
scale as the jogs crash into the bends, or open
up small windows to deeper crust.
● Most transform faults connect segments of
mid-ocean ridges and are thus ocean-ocean
plate boundaries .
● Some transform faults connect continental parts
of plates.
● An example is the San Andreas Fault, which
connects the southern end of the Juan de Fuca
Ridge with the northern end of the East Pacific
Rise (a ridge) in the Gulf of California .
● The part of California west of the San Andreas
Fault and all of Baja California are on the Pacific
Plate.
● But transform faults do not just connect
divergent boundaries; the Queen Charlotte Fault
connects the north end of the Juan de Fuca
Ridge, starting at the north end of Vancouver
Island, to the Aleutian subduction zone.
1. A transform plate boundary
between the Pacific and North
American plates creates the San
Andreas Fault, the world’s most
notorious transform fault.
2. Just offshore, a divergent plate
boundary, Juan de Fuca ridge,
creates the Juan de Fuca plate.
3. A convergent plate boundary
between the Juan de Fuca oceanic
plate and the North American
continental plate creates the
Cascades volcanoes.
TIMELINE
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
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