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A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. [1] It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone. [2] A transform fault is a special case of a strike-slip fault that also forms a plate boundary.
The Motagua Fault, which crosses through Guatemala, is a transform boundary between the southern edge of the North American plate and the northern edge of the Caribbean plate. New Zealand's Alpine Fault is another active transform boundary. The Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault which runs through the Jordan River Valley in the Middle East.
As the plates on either side of an offset mid-ocean ridge move, a transform fault forms at the offset between the two ridges. [2] Fracture zones and the transform faults that form them are separate but related features. Transform faults are plate boundaries, meaning that on either side of the fault is a different plate.
Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek ... The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a transform boundary exhibiting dextral motion.
Strike-slip tectonics or wrench tectonics is a type of tectonics that is dominated by lateral (horizontal) movements within the Earth's crust (and lithosphere). Where a zone of strike-slip tectonics forms the boundary between two tectonic plates , this is known as a transform or conservative plate boundary.
A special class of strike-slip fault is the transform fault when it forms a plate boundary. This class is related to an offset in a spreading center, such as a mid-ocean ridge, or, less common, within continental lithosphere, such as the Dead Sea Transform in the Middle East or the Alpine Fault in New Zealand. Transform faults are also referred ...
To the south, the San Andreas Fault, a strike-slip fault and transform plate boundary, separates the Pacific plate and the North American plate. To the north lies the Cascadia subduction zone, where a section of the Juan de Fuca plate called the Gorda plate is being subducted under the North American plate, forming a trench (T).
The accommodation of this plate configuration results in a transform boundary along the Mendocino Fracture Zone, and a divergent boundary at the Gorda Ridge. [2] [3] This area is tectonically active historically and today. The Cascadia subduction zone is capable of producing megathrust earthquakes on the order of MW 9.0.