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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.
Subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American plate to form the Andes. Subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Australian plate and Tonga plate, forming the complex New Zealand to New Guinea subduction/transform boundaries. Collision of the Eurasian plate and the African plate formed the Pontic Mountains in Turkey.
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)
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.
The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a transform boundary exhibiting dextral motion. Other plate boundary zones occur where the effects of the interactions are unclear, and the boundaries, usually occurring along a broad belt, are not well defined and may show various types of movements in different episodes.
The Dead Sea transform fault (DSTF) is another example of a well-known continental transform fault. This transform is roughly 1000 km in length, running from the Red Sea rifting system (south) up into Türkiye connecting to the East Anatolian Fault (north). It sits between the Arabian Plate to the east and the Sinai sub-plate to the west. [55]