There are four types of boundaries between tectonic plates that are defined by the movement of the plates: divergent and convergent boundaries, transform fault boundaries, and plate boundary zones.There are four types of boundaries between tectonic plates that are defined by the movement of the plates: divergent and convergent boundaries, transform fault
What are the 4 types of plate boundaries?
Tectonic Plates and Plate BoundariesConvergent boundaries: where two plates are colliding. Subduction zones occur when one or both of the tectonic plates are composed of oceanic crust. Divergent boundaries – where two plates are moving apart. Transform boundaries – where plates slide passed each other.
What is the fourth plate boundary?
What are the 4 types of plate boundary? Convergent boundaries — where crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another. Divergent boundaries: where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other. Convergent boundaries: where crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another.
What are the 4 main features of plate tectonics?
Deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, island arcs, submarine mountain ranges, and fault lines are examples of features that can form along plate tectonic boundaries.
What are the 7 plate boundaries?
There are major, minor and micro tectonic plates. There are seven major plates: African, Antarctic, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, Pacific and South American.
What causes the plates to move?
The heat from radioactive processes within the planets interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion, or tectonic shift.
Volcanoes do not typically occur at transform boundaries. One of the reasons for this is that there is little or no magma available at the plate boundary. The most common magmas at constructive plate margins are the iron/magnesium-rich magmas that produce basalts.
What is the oldest tectonic plate?
The oldest substantial chunk of Earths crust has been found in Greenland, and dates back at least 3.8 billion years.
Is Antarctica a minor plate?
The Antarctic Plate has an area of about 60,900,000 km2 (23,500,000 sq mi). It is the Earths fifth-largest plate. The Antarctic Plates movement is estimated to be at least 1 cm (0.4 in) per year towards the Atlantic Ocean.
What are three causes of plate movement?
Mantle dynamics, gravity, and Earths rotation taken altogether causes the plate movements. However, convectional currents are the general thought for the motion.
What is the fastest moving plate?
Because Australia sits on the fastest moving continental tectonic plate in the world, coordinates measured in the past continue changing over time. The continent is moving north by about 7 centimetres each year, colliding with the Pacific Plate, which is moving west about 11 centimetres each year.