What is it called when plates push together?

What is it called when plates push together?

About 80% of earthquakes occur where plates are pushed together, called convergent boundaries. Another form of convergent boundary is a collision where two continental plates meet head-on.

What causes plates to push together?

The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion, or tectonic shift.

When oceanic and continental plates are pushed together what happens?

The plates move towards one another and this movement can cause earthquakes and volcanoes. As the plates collide, the oceanic plate is forced beneath the continental plate. This is known as subduction and results in the formation of an ocean trench.

What is it called when oceanic plates go under continental crust?

Plates Subduct. When an ocean plate collides with another ocean plate or with a plate carrying continents, one plate will bend and slide under the other. This process is called subduction. A deep ocean trench forms at this subduction boundary.

What are the 4 ways plates move?

What are the major plate tectonic boundaries?

• Divergent: extensional; the plates move apart. Spreading ridges, basin-range.
• Convergent: compressional; plates move toward each other. Includes: Subduction zones and mountain building.
• Transform: shearing; plates slide past each other. Strike-slip motion.

What happens between two plates as they separate?

The plates diverge and this causes the construction of new rock. It happens when two tectonic plates pull apart and rock from the mantle rises up through the opening to form new surface rock when it cools. It happens at the start of a new ocean and continues at the mid-ocean ridge while the ocean is opening.

What are the 3 causes of plate movement?

Mantle dynamics, gravity, and Earth’s rotation taken altogether causes the plate movements. However, convectional currents are the general thought for the motion.

How fast do plates move?

They can move at rates of up to four inches (10 centimeters) per year, but most move much slower than that. Different parts of a plate move at different speeds. The plates move in different directions, colliding, moving away from, and sliding past one another. Most plates are made of both oceanic and continental crust.

What are the 4 boundaries?

Tectonic Plates and Plate Boundaries

• Convergent 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.

In what direction do the two plates move?

The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent, where plates move into one another; divergent, where plates move apart; and transform, where plates move sideways in relation to each other. They move at a rate of one to two inches (three to five centimeters) per year.

What is an example of oceanic continental convergence?

Examples of ocean-continent convergent boundaries are subduction of the Nazca Plate under South America (which has created the Andes Mountains and the Peru Trench) and subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate under North America (creating the Cascade Range).

What is the difference between oceanic plates and continental plates?

Oceanic plates are much thinner than the continental plates. At the convergent boundaries the continental plates are pushed upward and gain thickness. The rocks and geological layers are much older on continental plates than in the oceanic plates. The Continental plates are much less dense than the Oceanic plates.

What happens when two continental plates come in contact?

When two continental continental plates come in contact they start push each other in opposite direction. It is the collision zone where all the force gets concentrated causing continental continental convergence, folding and faulting.

What happens to rocks when two plates come together?

This is just about the coolest thing in geology. When the two plates come together, the edges will “scrunch” against each other, causing uplift of the rocks at the edges of each plate, subsequent folding and faulting of those rocks, and eventually, mountain-building and volcanism on each side.

What happens when two plates collide in the ocean?

When a plate is subducted, large amounts of friction energy are converted into heat as the plates scrape against each other deep underground. Molten rock is the result, which often makes its way to the surface. This results in a line of volcanoes at the plate edge, sometimes thousands of miles long, above the subduction zone.