A mid-ocean ridge would then mark the boundary between the plates. Divergent Plate Boundaries At a divergent boundary, tectonic plates move apart from one another. The two types of plate boundaries that are most likely to produce volcanic activity are divergent plate boundaries and convergent plate boundaries. If the plates there continue to diverge, millions of years from now eastern Africa will split from the continent to form a new landmass. Volcanoes are most common in these geologically active boundaries. On land, giant troughs such as the Great Rift Valley in Africa form where plates are tugged apart. A single mid-ocean ridge system connects the world's oceans, making the ridge the longest mountain range in the world. The process renews the ocean floor and widens the giant basins. Mountains and volcanoes rise along the seam. Divergent BoundariesĪt divergent boundaries in the oceans, magma from deep in the Earth's mantle rises toward the surface and pushes apart two or more plates. These types of collisions can also lead to underwater volcanoes that eventually build up into island arcs like Japan. In addition, the diving plate melts and is often spewed out in volcanic eruptions such as those that formed some of the mountains in the Andes of South America.Īt ocean-ocean convergences, one plate usually dives beneath the other, forming deep trenches like the Mariana Trench in the North Pacific Ocean, the deepest point on Earth. As the overlying plate lifts up, it also forms mountain ranges. These convergent boundaries also occur where a plate of ocean dives, in a process called subduction, under a landmass. Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, may be a tiny bit taller tomorrow than it is today. As the mash-up continues, the mountains get higher. India and Asia crashed about 55 million years ago, slowly giving rise to the Himalaya, the highest mountain system on Earth. Where plates serving landmasses collide, the crust crumples and buckles into mountain ranges. They move at a rate of one to two inches (three to five centimeters) per year. The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent, where plates move into one another divergent, where plates move apart and transform, where plates move sideways in relation to each other. Most geologic activity stems from the interplay where the plates meet or divide. (This includes the crust and uppermost part of the mantle.) Churning currents in the molten rocks below propel them along like a jumble of conveyor belts in disrepair. The plates make up Earth's outer shell, called the lithosphere. The tiny Juan de Fuca plate is largely responsible for the volcanoes that dot the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Though smaller in size, the minors are no less important when it comes to shaping the Earth. Six of the majors are named for the continents embedded within them, such as the North American, African, and Antarctic plates. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test.There are a few handfuls of major plates and dozens of smaller, or minor, plates. Examples of fair use include commentary, search engines, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Yet from northern California into the Pacific Northwest is a subduction zone, a convergent boundary where the oceanic plate dives beneath the continental plate. If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly.įair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work.
Meaning and definition of convergent boundary :įor the term convergent boundary may also exist other definitions and meanings, the meaning and definition indicated above are indicative not be used for medical and legal or special purposes.Īuthor : not indicated on the source document of the above text The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.
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