Week 5:

PROCESSES
THAT OCCUR
ALONG PLATE
BOUNDARIES
▪ The earth’s
lithosphere , which
includes the crust
and the upper
mantle, is made up
of a series of pieces
or tectonic plates,
that move slowly
over time.
▪ Our planet resembles like a
giant jigsaw puzzle
because its outer surface is
composed of about 20
tectonic plates with
enormous sections that
roughly fit together and
meet a t p l a c e s
▪ Plate boundaries are the
edges where two plates
meet.
▪ Most geologic activities,
including volcanoes,
earthquakes, and mountain
building, take place at plate
boundaries.
When Earth’s tectonic
plates grind past one
another, enormous
amounts of energy can
be released in the form
of earthquakes.
Volcanoes are also often
found near plate
boundaries because
molten rock from deep
within Earth can travel
upward at these
intersections between
plates.
▪ Convergent Plate
Boundary HERE ARE THE THREE
▪ Divergent Plate TYPES AND THE
PROCESSES OCCUR
Boundary
ALONG THESE
▪ Transform/Sliding
BOUNDARIES.
Plate Boundary
a. OCEANIC CRUST VS CONTINENTAL
CRUST- The denser oceanic plate is
subducted, often forming a mountain
range on the continent. The ANDES is an
example of this type of collision.

b. OCEANIC CRUST VS OCEANIC CRUST –

Island arc and oceanic trenches occur
when both of the plates are made of
oceanic crust. Zones of active seafloor
spreading can also occur behind the
island arc, known as back-arc basins.
These are often associated with
submarine volcanoes.

c. CONTINENTAL CRUST VS CONTINENTAL

CRUST- both continental crust are too
light to subduct so a continent-continent
collision occurs, creating especially large
mountain range. The most spectacular
example of this is the HIMALAYAS.
DIVERGENT
BOUNDARIES
The space created
can also fill with
new crustal material
sourced from
molten magma that
forms below.
Divergent
boundaries can form
within continents
but will eventually
open up and
become ocean
basins.
ON LAND: Divergent
boundaries within
continents initially
produce rifts, which
produce rift valleys.
UNDER THE SEA: The
most active divergent
plate boundaries are
between oceanic
plates and are often
called mid-oceanic
ridges.
TRANSFORM
BOUNDARIES
The relative
motion of the
plates is
horizontal. They
can occur
underwater or on
land, and crust is
neither destroyed
nor created.
Because of
friction, the plates
cannot simply
glide past each
other. Rather,
stress builds up in
both plates and
when it exceeds
the threshold of
the rocks, the
energy is
released– causing
earthquakes.