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Cartoon of a tectonic collision between two continents. In geology, continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries.Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains produced, and two continents sutured together.
Movements of tectonic plates create volcanoes along the plate boundaries, which erupt and form mountains. A volcanic arc system is a series of volcanoes that form near a subduction zone where the crust of a sinking oceanic plate melts and drags water down with the subducting crust. [9]
This paradoxically results in divergence which was only incorporated in the theory of plate tectonics in 1970, but still results in net destruction when summed over major plate boundaries. [2] Divergent boundaries are areas where plates move away from each other, forming either mid-ocean ridges or rift valleys. These are also known as ...
Schematic diagram showing the physical processes inside the Earth that lead to the generation of magma. Partial melting begins above the fusion point. Map showing approximate location of many current hotspots and the relationship to current tectonic plates and their boundaries and movement vectors
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; Divergent boundary – Linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other
Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.
The boundary that separates the two colliding bodies is the Great Lakes tectonic zone; it is a fault zone of highly deformed rocks. [4] Collision began along the GLTZ around and continued for tens of millions of years. [4] The collision is interpreted to have happened obliquely at an angle, [5] beginning in the west.
Extensional tectonics is associated with the stretching and thinning of the crust or the lithosphere.This type of tectonics is found at divergent plate boundaries, in continental rifts, during and after a period of continental collision caused by the lateral spreading of the thickened crust formed, at releasing bends in strike-slip faults, in back-arc basins, and on the continental end of ...