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Earthquakes are common along convergent boundaries. A region of high earthquake activity, the Wadati–Benioff zone, generally dips 45° and marks the subducting plate. Earthquakes will occur to a depth of 670 km (416 mi) along the Wadati-Benioff margin. [citation needed] Both compressional and extensional forces act along convergent boundaries.
Convergent boundaries are areas where plates move toward each other and collide. These are also known as compressional or destructive boundaries. 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 ...
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)
Tectonic plates are composed of the oceanic lithosphere and the thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along convergent plate boundaries, the process of subduction carries the edge of one plate down under the other plate and into the mantle. This process reduces the total surface area (crust) of the Earth.
Tectonic plate interactions – Movements of Earth's lithosphere . Continental drift – Movement of Earth's continents relative to each other; Convergent boundary – Region of active deformation between colliding tectonic plates
The Kermadec–Tonga subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from the North Island of New Zealand northward. The formation of the Kermadec and Tonga plates started about 4–5 million years ago. Today, the eastern boundary of the Tonga plate is one of the fastest subduction zones, with a rate up to 24 cm/year (9.4 in/year ...
The easterly edge is a divergent boundary with the African plate; the southerly edge is a complex boundary with the Antarctic plate, the Scotia plate, and the Sandwich Plate; the westerly edge is a convergent boundary with the subducting Nazca plate; and the northerly edge is a boundary with the Caribbean plate and the oceanic crust of the ...
Subduction is the driving force behind plate tectonics, and without it, plate tectonics could not occur. [12] Oceanic subduction zones are located along 55,000 km (34,000 mi) of convergent plate margins, [13] almost equal to the cumulative plate formation rate 60,000 km (37,000 mi) of mid-ocean ridges. [14]