Module 4

MELC:

Describe the different types of plate boundaries (S10ES – Ia-j-36.2)

Specific Objectives:
- Identify and describe the different types of plate boundaries.
- Identify the type of boundary associated with each major lithospheric plate.
- Describe the movement in each type of plate boundary; and
- Relate each type of plate with the stress on rocks.

Plate Tectonics
• The Earth’s crust is made up of major plates which are moved in various directions.
• The plates collide, pull apart, or scrape against each other.
• The word, tectonic, refers to changes in the crust because of plate interaction.
• Plates are made of rigid lithosphere.

The lithosphere is made up of the crust and the upper part of the mantle.

What are tectonic plates made of?

• Plates are made of rigid lithosphere.
The lithosphere is made up of the crust and the upper part of the mantle.
PLATE BOUNDARIES
-are the lines at the edges of the different pieces of the lithospheres.
Lithospheric plates are moving due to the convection current in the Earth’s interior.

Convection Currents
-formed by rising of hot magma near the core towards the surface, while cooler magma near
the crust sinks, setting up a current that causes the plates to move.

-At a bigger level geologists believe convection is what makes tectonic plates move. There is
clearly tremendous amount of heat inside the Earth (just look at volcanoes), w/c could drive
the convection in the mantle.

Plate Movement

Plate Tectonic Theory

- the Earth’s lithosphere consists of the crust and upper mantle that moves
slowly and constantly over time. This movement causes the formation of plate boundaries
namely:
a. Divergent
b. Convergent
c. Transform Fault Boundaries

a. DIVERGENT BOUNDARIES
- refer to plates that separate and move apart
in opposite directions forming new lithosphere - the young seafloor.
- this either occurs at mid-ocean ridges (seafloor spreading) or at rifted continental
margins
(Rift valley).
Divergent Boundary is formed when two tectonic plates move apart from each
other creating tension. Molten rocks called magma to rise from the Earth’s mantle
to the surface. The Earth’s surface is cool enough
to solidify the magma that rose, thus, creating new oceanic crust or seafloor. A
divergent boundary is also known as a constructive boundary.
The mid-ocean ridge
is formed by the divergence between oceanic plates while continental rift valley is
formed
between continental plates. Rift valley can also be found at the bottom of the
ocean where seafloor spreading occurs. Both the formation of mid-ocean ridge and
rift valley had the occurrence of an earthquake. Examples are boundaries between
South American plate and African plate, Pacific Plate and Nazca Plate, and North
American Plate and Eurasian Plate.

B. CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES

- are formed when two plates move toward each other. The oceanic plate bends
downward at the subduction zone.
- this occurs in two oceanic plates:
1. convergent boundary and 2. continental plate-oceanic plate convergent boundary.
- Oceanic plate sinks because it is denser than the continental plate. In the case of
convergence of two oceanic plates, the older plate sinks. Whereas in the
convergence of two continental plates, they collide and buckle up forming
mountain ranges.
- No subduction occurs in this type of convergence.

Convergent boundary is formed when two plates move toward each other. This
boundary has three types:
a. Oceanic plate - Continental plate boundary
b. Two Oceanic plates boundary and
c. Two Continental plates boundary.

In Oceanic-Continental plates boundary and two oceanic plates boundary, the oceanic
plate bends downward into the mantle through the process called subduction. The
leading edge of the subducted plate melts in the mantle and magma rises forming a
continental volcanic arc in oceanic-continental plate boundary, which is parallel to the
trench that is formed due to subduction.

• While in two oceanic plates boundary, island volcanic chain is formed parallel to the
trench. An earthquake occurs in both type of boundaries. Since the oceanic plate is
destroyed at the convergent boundary, this boundary is also called a destructive
 boundary. Examples are boundaries between the Eurasian plate and the Philippine
plate, Nazca Plate and South American Plate, and Pacific Plate and Australian Plate.
With two continental plates converging, a compression zone is formed. Both plates
collide and buckle up causing mountain ranges such as the Himalayas Mountain
ranges. There is no subduction, no trench, and no volcanoes formed in this type of
convergent boundary.

C. TRANSFORM FAULT BOUNDARIES

- are plates sliding past or slipping past each other.

Transform Fault Boundary
- formed when two plates are sliding past each other. It is also called the Strike-slip
fault. Rocks that line the boundary split into pieces as the plates slip at each other. A
crack is then formed creating an undersea canyon or linear fault valley. San Andreas
Fault is an example of this.
-
Divergent Boundaries
Iceland: An example of continental rifting

• Continent-Continent Collision Forms mountains, e.g. European Alps, Himalayas

• Continent-Oceanic Crust Collision Oceanic plates subducts underneath the continental
plate
• Oceanic plate heats and melts
• The melt rises forming volcanoes E.g. The Andes

Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision

• When two oceanic plates collide, one runs over the other which causes it to sink into
the mantle forming a subduction zone.
• The subducting plate is bent downward to form a very deep depression in the ocean
floor called a trench.
• The world’s deepest parts of the ocean are found along trenches.
• – E.g. The Mariana Trench is 11 km deep!