Earth System Science - Chapter 5
Convergent Plate Boundary
Formed when two lithospheric plates move toward each other
How are strike-slip faults formed?
Shear forces form them
The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a _____________ zone?
Sliding zone
What type of fault is the San Andreas Fault?
Strike-slip fault - when the plates slide sideways past each other and eventually slip, rocks break, causing earthquakes.
What occurs when one plate moves underneath another?
Subduction
What kind of forces cause normal faults?
Tension forces
What forms normal faults
Tension stresses in the lithosphere
Which mountain range is formed as a result of rifting?
The Panamint Range
What happens when an oceanic plate converges with a continental plate?
The denser oceanic plate slides under the less dense continental plate
How can Earth's plates move?
They can collide, pull apart or slide against each other.
San Andreas Fault
Transform Plate Boundary that is located between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate. (also a strike-slip fault)
Divergent Plate Boundary
When two lithospheric plates are moving, or pulling apart. Most divergent plate boundaries occur at mid-ocean ridges
How can crust disappear at the edge of a boundary?
because new crust is being added to the other edge of the boundary
What happens when the Pacific Plate moves?
earthquakes; mountains are pushed up; and basins drop down
Volcanoes can be formed where subduction occurs, because of ______ that occurs in the plate that is sinking
melting
Subduction
process, in which one plate is forced down into the mantle beneath another plate.
What produced the active volcano Lassen Peak
the collision of the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate
Continental Rifting
the process that pulls a continent apart
What are strike-slip faults?
A boundary where rocks on opposite sides of the fault move in opposite or the same directions at different rates/speeds.
Fracture
A break, or crack, in rock
Rift Valley
A long, flat narrow valley forms as the hanging wall blocks slip down because divergent plate boundaries are formed where tension stresses cause the lithosphere to stretch and become thinner
What is a transform boundary?
A transform boundary is when two plates slide past one another.
Why are so many mountains in California?
California is on a plate boundary
The transform plate boundary in California goes out to sea north of _________?
Cape Mendocino
Names the types of stress?
Compression; Tension; and Shear
Fault
If the rocks on one side of a fracture have moved relative to the rocks on the other side, the fracture is a fault
What happens to rock around a subducting slab?
It goes under the other plate.
What is formed when two plates collide?
Mountains
A divergent boundary is a boundary between two plates that
Move away from each other
Do two colliding continental plates always cause volcanoes?
No, usually no subduction occurs when continental plates collide
Name the types of faults
Normal; Reverse; and Strike-Slip
What plate is most of California located on?
Pacific Plate
What is primarily responsible for shaping California's landscape?
Plate movements
Compression forces cause what type of faults?
Reverse
What is the Gulf of California an example of?
Rift Valley
What is the difference between normal faults and rift valleys?
Rift valleys are formed from normal faults.