What is the process of plates sliding past each other in opposite directions?
Plate tectonics.
Questions about Earth's tectonic plates?
1. divergent boundary. Extra Info: As the plates separate along the boundary, the block between the faults cracks and drops down into the soft, plastic interior (the asthenosphere). The sinking of the block forms a central valley called a rift. Magma (liquid rock) seeps upward to fill the cracks. In this way, new crust is formed along the boundary. Earthquakes occur along the faults, and volcanoes form where the magma reaches the surface. 2. convergent boundary. Extra Info: Plates only move a few centimeters each year, so collisions are very slow and last millions of years. Even though plate collisions take a long time, lots of interesting things happen. For example, an oceanic plate has crashed into a continental plate. The two plates colliding is like looking at a single frame in a slow-motion movie of two cars crashing into each other. Just as the front ends of cars fold and bend in a collision, so do the "front ends" of colliding plates. The edge of the continental plate in the drawing has folded into a huge mountain range, while the edge of the oceanic plate has bent downward and dug deep into the Earth. A trench has formed at the bend. All that folding and bending makes rock in both plates break and slip, causing earthquakes. As the edge of the oceanic plate digs into Earth's hot interior, some of the rock in it melts. The melted rock rises up through the continental plate, causing more earthquakes on its way up, and forming volcanic eruptions where it finally reaches the surface. 3. transform boundary. Extra Info. Places where plates slide past each other are called transform boundaries. Since the plates on either side of a transform boundary are merely sliding past each other and not tearing or crunching each other, transform boundaries lack the spectacular features found at convergent and divergent boundaries. Instead, transform boundaries are marked in some places by linear valleys along the boundary where rock has been ground up by the sliding. In other places, transform boundaries are marked by features like stream beds that have been split in half and the two halves have moved in opposite directions. Although transform boundaries are not marked by spectacular surface features, their sliding motion causes lots of earthquakes.
Why do tectonic plates always move in the opposite direction?
Okay, I get it.If the plates squeeze closer at the boundary, they are moving in opposite directions. If they pull apart, they are moving in opposite directions.If they are doing neither, then they are sliding past each other, in opposite directions.Still, they can be captivating. At the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, rising magma pushes two plates apart, making new seafloor. Diverging plates at the Great Rift Valley are slowly ripping eastern Africa from the rest of the continent.The Himalayas show just the opposite process. The Indian plate has long been smashing into Asia, squeezing Everest higher each year.The Andes formed the same way, above ocean plate subducted under South America. On the other side of the Pacific, the Marianas Trench destroys ocean crust into the deepest ocean.But here's one that's different. In California, a fence in Point Reyes Seashore Park, north of San Francisco, crosses a strike/slip fault, more or less at right angles. (Both are shown in the picture). Until April, 1906, the fence was continuous. Then one San Andreas plate slipped twenty feet past the other, turning the fence into two parallel pieces.
How does the theory of plate tectonics explain the locations of volcanoes, earthquakes and mountain belts on Earth?
The Earth's rocky crust (both oceanic and continental) is comprised of a series of plates that float on the semi-solid or magma-like mantle. Convection currents cause the magma to rise and fall, therefore, moving the Earth's plates in different directions. This movement is responsible for mountain building, volcanoes, and earthquakes.Convergent Plates: When two continental plates converge or collide, the crust is squished together, folding and buckling and forming mountains. This is just one way mountains are formed.Subduction Plates: When one continental plate and one oceanic plate collide, the more dense oceanic plate is subducted or pushed under the continental plate. As it plunges deeper into the mantle, the rock of the oceanic crust melts, becoming part of the mantle. An ocean trench forms at the plate boundaries. Volcanoes and earthquakes may happen here. In the case of volcanoes, molten rock rises until it erupts at the surface.When two oceanic plates converge, the denser plate will subduct under the plate that is less dense .An ocean trench marks the location where the plate is pushed down into the mantleIf the two plates that meet at a convergent plate boundary both are of oceanic crust, the older, denser plate will subduct beneath the less dense plate.The features of an ocean-ocean subduction zone are the same as those of an ocean-continent subduction zone, except that the volcanic arc will be a set of islands known as an island arc.The older plate subducts into a trench, resulting in earthquakes. Melting of mantle material creates volcanoes at the subduction zone.Divergent Plates: When plates spread apart or diverge, magma rises up from the mantle and fills the gap, creating new crust. As this continues, volcanic islands may form at the surface.Transform Plates: When plates grind against and past each other in opposite directions earthquakes may strike along these boundaries.Hopefully this will help you :)
SCIENCE HELP! plates and sliding, easy for you, not for me.?
When manipulating the broken eggshell pieces, what occurred in the area of the crack when the two pieces were pulled or pushed apart? The pieces folded up forming raised areas. The two pieces rubbed past each other horizontally. The crack between them got wider. --------------------------------------... When manipulating the broken eggshell pieces, what occurred in the area of the crack when the two pieces were pushed together, towards each other? The pieces crumpled and buckled up. The two pieces rubbed past each other horizontally. The crack between them got wider. --------------------------------------... When manipulating the broken eggshell pieces, what occurred in the area of the crack when the two pieces were pushed so that they slide in opposite directions past each other? The pieces fracture and break off making a zig zag pattern. The two pieces rubbed past each other horizontally. The crack between them got wider.
What happens when an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate, and when two continental plates collide?
Typically, when an oceanic and a continental plate collide, the oceanic plate buckles and begins to subside beneath the continental plate (which is less dense, and thicker). The continental plate above the descending oceanic plate, usually begins to feel the effects of the collision in the form of compressive tectonism - which create folds, faults (and earthquakes) and volcanoes may (and usually do) form, while coastal mountain ranges also are formed due to the compression associated with the collision. Depending on exactly where the subducting oceanic plate is, the volcanic activity will be andesitic and on land (Andes) or will be more basaltic and form a new island chain (Japan).When two continental plates collide, either of two things happens: one plate begins to subduct below the other, with similar overall effects to the overriding plate, OR both plates buckle up and being to rise (the Himalayas are the product of the collision of two continental plates).
When two plates slide past each other, what do they often form?
There are two places in the world that spring to mind immediately, where this process takes place. One is of course California, where the North American Plate is sliding past the Pacific Plate, resulting in the San Andreas Fault, which cuts California in two lengthwise.The second is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean down in New Zealand, where the South Island is also split in half lengthwise by by the same process: here the Pacific Plate is sliding past the Indo-Australian Plate, forming the Great Alpine Fault, which runs all the way up from Milford Sound to the Marlborough Sounds.San Andreas Fault - WikipediaAlpine Fault - Wikipedia