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Map showing Earth's principal tectonic plates and their boundaries in detail. These plates comprise the bulk of the continents and the Pacific Ocean.For purposes of this list, a major plate is any plate with an area greater than 20 million km 2 (7.7 million sq mi)
Obduction zones occurs when the continental plate is pushed under the oceanic plate, but this is unusual as the relative densities of the tectonic plates favours subduction of the oceanic plate. This causes the oceanic plate to buckle and usually results in a new mid-ocean ridge forming and turning the obduction into subduction. [citation needed]
Convergent boundaries occur between oceanic-oceanic lithosphere, oceanic-continental lithosphere, and continental-continental lithosphere. The geologic features related to convergent boundaries vary depending on crust types. Plate tectonics is driven by convection cells in the mantle.
Some pieces of oceanic crust, known as ophiolites, failed to be subducted under continental crust at destructive plate boundaries; instead these oceanic crustal fragments were pushed upward and were preserved within continental crust.
Oceanic-Oceanic plate subduction zones comprise roughly 40% of all subduction zone margins on the planet. The ocean-ocean plate relationship can lead to subduction zones between oceanic and continental plates, therefore highlighting how important it is to understand this subduction setting.
Continental-continental divergent/constructive boundary Oceanic divergent boundary: mid-ocean ridge (cross-section/cut-away view). In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary (also known as a constructive boundary or an extensional boundary) is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other.
Slab gap hypothesis – Theory in plate tectonics; Slab window – Type of gap in a subducted oceanic plate; Supercontinent – Landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton; Terrane – Fragment of crust formed on one tectonic plate and accreted to another; Volcano – Rupture in a planet's crust where material escapes
The continent-ocean boundary (COB) or continent-ocean transition (COT) or continent-ocean transition zone (COTZ) is the boundary between continental crust and oceanic crust on a passive margin or the zone of transition between these two crustal types.