Tectonic Plates Flashcards
How far do plates move per year?
About 1-16 centimeters.
What are ways that plates move (movement patterns)?
Towards each other, away from each other, and side to side with each other.
What are the three types of boundaries between plates?
Divergent Boundaries, Convergent Boundaries, and Transform Faults.
What happens at divergent boundaries?
Two plates move apart and this creates a gap of newly formed rock.
What are mountains that form at divergent boundaries?
The Mid-Atlantic ridge
What is a Rift Valley and where can it form?
Rift Valley is when the plates move away and the land between drops and creates a valley. These can happen at Divergent Boundaries.
What happens at a convergent boundary?
Two plates move towards each other.
What happens at a Subduction (zone)? (What is it)
Ocean area dive beneath continental plates and this creates trenches at a Subduction Zone.
What happens at a trench (What is it)?
Where a plate sinks creating a depression.
What can two continental plates form?
Mountains! Himalayas are an example.
What happens at a Transform Fault?
Plates slide horizontally in opposite directions.
What happens at a Transform Fault?
Earthquakes occur. Rock is neither created or displaced, just shifted (the West coast, for example)
