Plate Tectonics & how plates work

• Transform boundary also called a conservative boundary

• Two tectonic plates slide past one another

• Convection currents are parallel to each other

• Force is shearing

TRANSFORM BOUNDARY

• No real landforms are created at a transform boundary– no new crust is formed– no existing crust is lost in

transform boundaries.

• Many earthquakes occur along faults created by transform tectonic boundaries.

Image courtesy of geology.com

• Most of the Earth's transform boundaries of tectonic plates are on the ocean floor along the edges of the mid ocean ridges.

• There are a few transform boundaries on land.

• The most famous of the transform boundaries is the San Andreas Fault zone in Southern California where the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate slowly move past each other at about 6mm pr year

Image courtesy of NASA

Tectonic plateboundaries

Divergent boundaries

EarthquakesVolcanoesMid-ocean ridgesRift valleys

Convergent boundaries

EarthquakesVolcanoesDeep ocean trenchesVolcanic mountain ranges

Ocean/continent

Ocean/oceanEarthquakesVolcanoesDeep ocean trenchesVolcanic Arc Islands

Continent/continentMountain rangesearthquakes

Transform Boundaries Earthquakes

Brace map showing parts of the whole

Spreading boundaryNew land madeSeafloor spreadingrifting

Colliding boundaryLand is destroyedSubductionuplift

Sliding boundaryNo landforms made