Essay on Investigating Plate Margins

Each plate is moving a certain direction due to the convection from the Asthenosphere. The meeting of two plates is called a boundary, there are three types of boundaries in the world: Convergent Boundaries, Divergent Boundaries. And Transform Boundaries. In the case of Convergent Boundaries, two plates are pushing against each other, which can create Deep Ocean Trenches, Huge Mountains, and/or Volcanic Mountain chains. An example of this happening is the Mariana Trench, During Convergence, the denser crust, oceanic crust, is subducted below the less dense crust. If the crusts have the same density then the plates are pushed upwards. At Divergent Boundaries, the plates are moving away from each other, this can create Mid-Ocean Ridges and Rift Valleys. An example of this happening is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At the final boundary, Transform Boundaries, the plates slide the past one another in the opposite direction, causing shallow earthquakes and offset features. An example of this Boundary is The San Andreas Fault. While the crust moves, there are places called Hot spots in which a hot portion of the mantle rises up beneath the crust for millions of years. An example of this is the Hawaii Island

Plate boundaries are pieces of earths’ crust and upper mantle interacting with each other. There are three ways these plates can interact with each other, transform, convergent, and divergent. When plates transform to each other, they are when two plates slide past each other, currently there are transforming plates in California right now. Convergent plates are two plates going towards each other, one going other the other, and the other overlapping. The final type is divergent plates, two plates going away from each other, one of these is found between North

The theory of plate tectonics states that Earth’s outer shell is divided into plates. The crust and upper mantle is broken into plates that move around on the mantle, changing in size throughout time. The lithosphere makes up the crust and upper mantle and the asthenosphere a plastic like layer beneath the lithosphere. There are three types of plate boundaries. Divergent boundaries where two plates move away from each other. The ocean widens and new crust forms at the mid-oceanic ridge. Convergent boundaries has three types of converging, moving two plates towards each other. First we have an ocean floor plate that collides with a less dense continental plate. Next an ocean floor plate collides with another ocean floor plate. Finally a continental plate collides with another continental plate. Transform boundaries were two plates slide past one another. The resulting effects of plate tectonics is landforms such as rift valleys,

The plates are in constant motion. Where they interact, along their margins, important geological processes take place, such as the formation of mountain belts, earthquakes, and volcanoes” (Spall 1). Plate tectonics are one of the most influential factors of earthquakes. When tectonic plates slide past each other an earthquake occurs. Typical plate tectonics move at about the same rate your fingernail grows. The process is extremely slow before the plate moves significantly enough to cause an earth quake but it does happen. These tectonic plates are on the fault lines which are considered earthquake hot spots.

Earth has many tectonic plates which made out the seven continents. even today there are tectonic plates that are shifting. Some say that California is shifting away from the United States. Although, Earth started out with one continent called Pangaea. There are three major types of tectonic plate boundaries. The first one is divergent, divergent is when the plates move apart from one another. The second one is subduction, subduction is when the oceanic plate moves under a continental plate. Subduction mostly causes the most violent earthquakes and volcanic activity. The last major type of boundary is transform, transform is when the plates slide back and forth against one another. Plates that are located in the Lithosphere are North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, India, Antarctica, Australia and the Pacific

Two different types of landforms that form at convergent boundaries are mountains and volcanoes. Mountains, such as Mount Everest and K2, are formed when two continental plates collide, which causes the landforms to rise. Volcanoes, such as Mount Saint Helens and Mount Fuji, forms when the more dense oceanic plate subducts under the less dense continental plate and is driven down into the hot asthenosphere. Subducted plate melts due to extreme heat and friction. Melted plate rises up through the crust, where it reaches the surface and cools. Those weak spots allow the magma to come out, forming into lava. There are also volcanic island arcs, which form when two oceanic plates collide, and continental volcanic arcs, which forms when an

Types of plate boundaries can form many volcanoes. These boundaries are called spreading and colliding boundaries. Along the boundaries, a belt of volcanoes starts to form. This is called the Ring of Fire. Along mid ocean ridges, volcanoes form because of spreading boundary. They can also form on land. The next boundary is the colliding boundary. On colliding boundaries, volcanoes form when two plates in the ocean

Convergent Boundary- At convergent boundaries, two plates move toward one another, colliding and pushing into each other. The plate that is made of oceanic crust can slide down beneath another plate, which forms a deep narrow trench. As one is pushed under the other, the plate begins to melt, which causes a line of volcanoes to form that are in a parallel line to the trench. If both tectonic plates are continental crust, the plates will collapse or break up as they collide, which forms a high mountain

These large sections between he cracks are called tectonic plates. Most of the major tectonic plates are in the Lithosphere- Earth's outermost layer. The major plates in the Lithosphere are the African plate, Antarctic plate, Eurasian plate, Indo-Australian plate, North American plate, Pacific plate and South American plate. The cracks in between these plates are boundaries. There are three main types of boundaries between the tectonic plates. The first is a divergent boundary, which occurs when two tectonic places move away from each other. Volcanic activity is common along this boundary A rift valley can also be created from this type of boundary The next is a convergent boundary, which happens when two tectonic plates come together. There are two kinds of surface feature that are associated with a convergent boundary, deep ocean trenches and volcanic and non-volcanic mountain ranges. The last is a transform boundary, when is when two plates slide against each other. The transform boundary is more commonly known as the fault boundary The most common surface activity associated with this boundary are

Based on the information in the textbook and the instructor note, plate tectonics is the Earth’s surface divided into several plates that move slowly and change in size. I found the video Plate Tectonics: “Birth of a Theory” in session 13 very useful. It helps me understand the material easily by using the animation to illustrate the process of plate tectonics. It is amazing about the fact that the continents can be made to fit together like pieces of a picture puzzle. About 225 million years ago, the Earth seemed to contain only one piece of continent. However, as time goes by, the plate boundaries have happened. The plates that move away from one another are called divergent plate boundaries. The plates that move toward each other are called

On the topic of plate tectonics a convergent boundary is when two or possibly more plates are moving towards each other one going under the other while the other goes over the first. The boundary between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate is a convergent boundary which fuels the formation of the Himalayan mountain range.

One of the largest plates is the South American plate. The border between the South American and African plate is a divergent boundary. A divergent boundary is when plates move away from each other. The tensional forces causes a rift valley or crack in the Earth’s crust. Molten material then fills the rift and cools causing the plates to spread apart and creating new seafloor pushing the two plates apart (Lutgens & Tarbuck, 2014).

This then forms oceanic trenches in which the Earth's crust is pushed under into the mantle where it becomes molten. The oceanic trenches are several hundred kilometers long but narrow. They also are the deepest parts of the ocean floor. These boundary types also produce mountains. Mountains are made when convergent boundaries collide but instead of one going under they both are pushed up by the others force. For this to happen neither of the boundaries can be more or less dense than the other. There are three types of convergent boundaries: oceanic plate-continental plate convergence, oceanic plate-oceanic plate convergence, and continental-continental plate convergence. An example of this type of boundary is the collision between the Eurasian Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate which is forming the Himalayas.

Earth 's volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, rigid tectonic plates that float on a hotter, softer layer in its mantle. Therefore, on Earth, volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. For example, a mid-oceanic ridge, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming together. Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and thinning of the crust 's interior plates, e.g., in the East African Rift and the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field and Rio Grande Rift in North America. This type of volcanism falls under the umbrella of "plate hypothesis" volcanism. Volcanism away from plate boundaries has also been explained as mantle plumes. These so-called "hotspots", for example Hawaii, are postulated to arise from upwelling diapirs with magma from the core–mantle boundary, 3,000 km deep in the Earth. Volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates slide past one another.

Japan lies between four tectonic plates: Philippine plate, Pacific plate and Eurasian plate. It was between these plates that caused the whole monstrosity in Kobe. Normally, the Earth 's crust is broken up into pieces called plates. Heat rising and falling inside the mantle creates convection currents generated by radioactive decay in the core. The convection currents move the plates. Where convection currents diverge near the Earth 's crust, plates move apart. Where convection currents converge, plates move towards each other. The movement of the plates, and the activity inside the Earth, is called plate tectonics.