Plate Tectonics and Geological Formations

Vocabulary flashcards covering the processes, landforms, and specific geographic examples related to divergent, convergent, and transform plate boundaries.

Mid-oceanic ridge

An extensive underwater mountain chain formed at divergent oceanic-oceanic boundaries when magma rises to fill gaps between spreading plates.

Rift valley

A deep depression with steep sides formed either at the center of a mid-ocean ridge or between parallel faults when continental plates move apart.

Surtsey, Iceland

Volcanic islands formed at the divergent boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate.

Parallel faults

Fractures in rocks that form when two continental plates move apart, leading to the collapse of land to create a rift valley.

Great Rift Valley

A continental rift system formed by the divergence of the Nubian Plate and the Somalian Plate.

Oceanic trench

A deep depression formed at a convergent boundary where a denser oceanic plate subducts beneath another plate.

Subduction

The process where a denser plate sinks beneath a less dense plate into the mantle at a convergent boundary.

Mariana Trench

An oceanic trench formed by the collision of the Pacific Plate and the Philippines Plate.

Fold mountains

Mountain ranges formed at convergent boundaries where enormous pressure causes rocks to uplift and buckle.

Himalayan Mountain Range

A range of fold mountains formed by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate.

Nepal $2015$ Earthquake

A seismic event caused by friction along the convergent plate boundary of the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate.

Peru-Chile Trench

An oceanic trench formed where the denser Nazca plate subducts beneath the less dense South American plate.

Andes Mountain Range

A range of fold mountains formed on the continental plate at the oceanic-continental convergent boundary of the Nazca and South American plates.

Chile $2010$ Earthquake

An earthquake resulting from friction along the subducting oceanic Nazca plate at a convergent boundary.

Fault

A zone of fractures produced by stress when tectonic plates slide past each other at a transform boundary.

San Andreas Fault

A transform plate boundary formed by the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate sliding past each other.

Magnetic striping

A symmetrical zebra-like pattern of rocks on the ocean floor that records Earth’s magnetic polarity reversals as plates move apart.