Tectonic Processes at Different Plate Boundaries

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering tectonic processes, plate boundaries, and landforms based on the lecture material.

Divergent Plate Boundary

A plate boundary where two tectonic plates move apart or away from each other.

Convergent Plate Boundary

A plate boundary formed when two tectonic plates move towards or collide into each other.

Transform Plate Boundary

A plate boundary where tectonic plates slide past each other along a transform fault, giving rise to friction and earthquakes without magma rising.

Sea Floor Spreading

The process at divergent oceanic plate boundaries where magma rises through gaps, cools, and solidifies to form new oceanic crust, extending the ocean floor.

Mid-Oceanic Ridge

An extensive underwater mountain chain formed on the ocean floor as magma continuously rises and solidifies along a divergent oceanic-oceanic boundary.

Rift Valley

A steep-sided lowland formed along a divergent plate boundary when central blocks of land sink between fractures as plates pull apart.

Block Mountains

Sections of higher land left standing on either side of a rift valley when continental crusts diverge and the central block sinks.

Subduction

The process at a convergent plate boundary where the denser, heavier crust is forced underneath the less dense crust down into the mantle.

Subduction Zone

The specific region along a convergent plate margin where subduction occurs and the subducting crust sinks into the mantle.

Oceanic Trench

A steep, deep depression in the ocean floor formed in the subduction zone where a subducting oceanic plate bends and sinks.

Destructive Boundary

Another term for a convergent plate boundary where subducting crust is melted and destroyed by immense heat and pressure in the mantle.

Volcanic Island Arc

A chain of volcanic islands formed above sea level after repeated eruptions of undersea volcanoes created by magma rising at an oceanic-oceanic subduction zone.

Fold Mountains

A chain of mountains formed when compressional forces along convergent boundaries cause crustal rock layers to be uplifted and buckled.

Folding

The process where compressional forces cause layers of rock to buckle and fold as two tectonic plates collide.

Faulting

The process where tectonic plates diverge, slide, or experience severe stress, causing fractures and faults to form in the crust.

San Andreas Fault

A transform fault in California, USA, formed where the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate slide past each other.

North Anatolian Fault

A transform fault in Turkey formed where the Eurasian Plate and the Anatolian Plate slide past each other.

Challenger Deep

The deepest point of the Mariana Trench crescent, plunging to a depth of 10,994m (or 11,000m).

Silfra Fissure

A fissure in Thingvellir Lake, Iceland, located directly on the divergent boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate.

East African Rift Valley System

A major continental rift system formed where the Nubian section and Somalian section of the African Plate pull apart from each other.

Himalayas

A fold mountain range formed by the convergence and collision of the continental Indo-Australian Plate and Eurasian Plate.

Mariana Trench

An oceanic trench formed at an oceanic-oceanic convergent boundary where the denser Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Philippine Plate.

Sunda Trench

An oceanic trench formed where the oceanic Indo-Australian Plate subducts beneath the continental Eurasian Plate.

Andes Mountains

A fold mountain range formed by the collision and subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate.