Plate Tectonics

Divergent Boundaries

Plate
Boundarie
s

Ocean-ocean

Convergent Boundaries

Transform Boundaries

Oceanocean

Continentcontinent

Oceancontinent

Continent
spreads, central
rift collapses,
ocean will
intrude.

Dense oceanic
lithosphere plunges
beneath
continental.
Earthquakes along
subducting plate.
Trench forms.
Subducted plate
partially melts.
Magma rises to
form volcanoes.

Continentcontinent

Plate
Movemen
t

Observed
Results

Location
Examples

Ridge forms at
spreading
center, ocean
basin expands,
and plate area
increases. Small
volcanoes and
earthquakes
occur.

East African Rift valley, mid-Atlantic

ridge

Older, cooler,
more dense crust
slips beneath less
dense crust.
Strong quakes.
Deep trench forms
subducted plate
heats, magma
rises to form
volcanic islands.

Collision of
massive granite
lithosphere.
Neither is
subducted. Plate
edges are
compressed,
folded, uplifted;
one may move
beneath the other.

Nazca Plate, Himalayas, Alps

A fault along
which
lithospheric
plates move past
each other.
Strong
earthquakes.

San Andreas
Fault