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The thalweg of a river. In geography, hydrography, and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg (/ ˈ t ɑː l v ɛ ɡ /) is the line or curve of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse. [1] Its vertical position in maps is the nadir (greatest depth, sounding) in the stream profile.
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 ...
Simplified fault map of southern California The faults of Southern California viewed to the southeast, as modeled by the Southern California Earthquake Center. Highlighted in purple are the San Andreas Fault (left) and Santa Monica Bay complex (right). The foreground is in the Santa Barbara Channel, the east-trending zone marks the Transverse Range
The Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates are moving east-northeast, subducting under the North American plate at a much slower rate of 2.5 to 3 cm per year. [6] Because the ridge is divided into three distinct parts, each section has its own spreading rate, caused by the slab-pull and ridge-push of the surrounding tectonic plates .
The Walker Lane takes up 15 to 25 percent of the boundary motion between the Pacific plate and the North American plate, the other 75 percent being taken up by the San Andreas Fault system to the west. [4] [5] The Walker Lane may represent an incipient major transform fault zone which could replace the San Andreas as the plate boundary in the ...
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.
The Pacific plate, to the west of the fault, is moving in a northwest direction while the North American plate to the east is moving toward the southwest, but relatively southeast under the influence of plate tectonics. The rate of slippage averages about 33 to 37 millimeters (1.3 to 1.5 in) a year across California. [10]
The Imperial Fault Zone is a right lateral-moving strike-slip fault, representing the northernmost transform fault associated with the East Pacific Rise. It is connected to the San Andreas Fault by the Brawley Seismic Zone. It terminates on its southern end at the Cerro Prieto spreading center.