UNIT-3:-

Transform Plate Boundaries:

► Types of transform faults and
boundaries;
►Processes at transform plate
boundaries;
►Continental transform faults
 Transform Plate Boundarie
Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates
slide past one another.

The fracture zone that forms a transform plate boundary is

known as a transform fault.

Most transform faults are found in the ocean basin and connect
offsets in the mid-ocean ridges.

A smaller number connect mid-ocean ridges and subduction

zones.

The San Andreas Fault, California, is a transform boundary that

separates the North American and Pacific Plates.
Transform Plate Boundaries
Transform plate boundaries are different from the
other two types.

At divergent plate boundaries, new oceanic crust is

formed.

At convergent boundaries, old oceanic crust is

destroyed.

But at transform plate boundaries, crust is not

created or destroyed.
Cause

•Heat generated in Earth's core creates convection

currents in Earth's Mantle causing lithospheric plates on
Earth's surface to move past each other.
•Force of shearing
•Push and Pull from side-to-side

Effect

•Faults - cracks in Earth's crust

•Earthquakes
 Types of transform faults and boundaries

A transform fault or transform boundary, sometimes

called a strike-slip boundary, is a fault along a plate
boundary where the motion is predominantly
horizontal.

It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate

boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge,
or a subduction zone.

A transform fault is a special case of a strike-slip fault

that also forms a plate boundary
Transform faults are commonly found linking segments of divergent boundaries
(mid-oceanic ridges or spreading centres).

These mid-oceanic ridges are where new seafloor is constantly created through
the upwelling of new basaltic magma. With new seafloor being pushed and pulled
out, the older seafloor slowly slides away from the mid-oceanic ridges toward the
continents.

Although separated only by tens of kilometers, this separation between segments

of the ridges causes portions of the seafloor to push past each other in opposing
directions. This lateral movement of seafloors past each other is where transform
faults are currently active.

Spreading center and strips Transform faults move differently from a strike-slip
fault at the mid-oceanic ridge.

Instead of the ridges moving away from each other, as they do in other strike-slip
faults, transform-fault ridges remain in the same, fixed locations, and the new ocean
seafloor created at the ridges is pushed away from the ridge.

Evidence of this motion can be found in paleomagnetic striping on the seafloor.

Active transform faults are between two
tectonic structures or faults.

Fracture zones represent the previously active

transform-fault lines, which have since passed
the active transform zone and are being pushed
toward the continents.

These elevated ridges on the ocean floor can be

traced for hundreds of miles and in some cases
even from one continent across an ocean to the
other continent.
In his work on transform-fault systems, geologist Tuzo Wilson
said that transform faults must be connected to other faults or
tectonic-plate boundaries on both ends; because of that
requirement, transform faults can grow in length, keep a constant
length, or decrease in length.

These length changes are dependent on which type of fault or

tectonic structure connect with the transform fault. Wilson
described six types of transform faults:
Growing length: In situations where a transform fault
links a spreading center and the upper block of a
subduction zone or where two upper blocks of
subduction zones are linked, the transform fault itself will
grow in length
Constant length: In other cases, transform faults will remain at
a constant length.
This steadiness can be attributed to many different causes. In the
case of ridge-to-ridge transforms, the constancy is caused by the
continuous growth by both ridges outward, canceling any change
in length.
The opposite occurs when a ridge linked to a subducting plate,
where all the lithosphere (new seafloor) being created by the
ridge is subducted, or swallowed up, by the subduction zone.
Finally, when two upper subduction plates are linked there is no
change in length. This is due to the plates moving parallel with
each other and no new lithosphere is being created to change
that length.
Constant length:
Decreasing length faults: In rare cases, transform faults can shrink
in length.
These occur when two descending subduction plates are linked by
a transform fault. In time as the plates are subducted, the
transform fault will decrease in length until the transform fault
disappears completely, leaving only two subduction zones facing in
opposite directions
The most prominent examples of the mid-oceanic ridge transform
zones are in the Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa.
Known as the St. Paul, Romanche, Chain, and Ascension fracture
zones, these areas have deep, easily identifiable transform faults
and ridges. Other locations include: the East Pacific Ridge located in
the South Eastern Pacific Ocean, which meets up with San Andreas
Fault to the North.
Transform faults are not limited to oceanic crust and spreading
centers; many of them are on continental margins. The best
example is the San Andreas Fault on the Pacific coast of the United
States. The San Andreas Fault links the East Pacific Rise off the West
coast of Mexico (Gulf of California) to the Mendocino Triple
Junction (Part of the Juan de Fuca plate) off the coast of the
Northwestern United States, making it a ridge-to-transform-style
fault.[5] The formation of the San Andreas Fault system occurred
fairly recently during the Oligocene Period between 34 million and
24 million years ago.
What are the 3 types of transform fault
boundaries
Transform faults occur as several different geo-
metries; they can connect
two segments of growing plate boundaries (R-
R transform fault),
one growing and one subducting plate
boundary (R-T transform fault) or two
subducting plate boundaries (T-T transform
fault);

R stands for mid-ocean ridge, T for deep sea

trench
Transform boundaries join sections of convergent and/or
divergent boundaries.
Most transform boundaries occur in ocean basins where
they offset oceanic ridges .

Oceanic ridge
systems are
offset along
fracture zones
and transform
faults.
What process occurs along the transform fault plate boundary?

The grinding action between the plates at a transform plate

boundary results in shallow earthquakes, large lateral
displacement of rock, and a broad zone of crustal
deformation. Perhaps nowhere on Earth is such a landscape
more dramatically displayed than along the San Andreas Fault
in western California.
Continental Transform Faults