Converging Oceanic Crust

o The leading edge of the subducted plate will

Leading Plate and Continental eventually reach the mantle causing it to melt and
turn into magma. The molten material will rise to
the surface creating a volcanic island arc parallel to
Crust leading plate
the trench. Volcanic island arc is a chain of
volcanoes position in an arc shape as seen in figure
o The previous activity depicts what happens during
below.
collision of two plates; one has continental edge
while the other has an oceanic edge. From the
diagram, it is clear that this event gives rise to the
formation of a volcanic arc near the edge of a
continental leading plate. The reason for this is
because the denser oceanic crust (PLATE A)
undergoes what we call subduction process or the
bending of the crust towards the mantle. Since the
mantle is hotter than the crust the tendency is the
subducted crust melt forming magma. Addition of
volatile material such as water will cause the
magma to become less dense, hence allowing it to
rise and reach the crust once again and causing
volcanic activities on the continental leading plate.

o For the oceanic crust, one important geologic

feature is formed, and that is the trench. Also called
submarine valleys, ocean trenches are the deepest Formation of the Philippine
part of the ocean. One of the deepest is the
Philippine trench with a depth of 10 540 meters. Archipelago
o Many parts of the Philippines originated from
o Another subsequent effect of the continuous oceanic-oceanic convergence. This resulted from
grinding of plates against each other is the the collision of two oceanic plates, with one of the
occurrence of earthquakes. The subduction of plate plates diving under the other.
can cause earthquakes at varying depths. Most
parts of the world experience occasional shallow Types of Plate Boundaries
earthquakes – where the focus is within 60km of
the Earth’s surface. Of the total energy released by • Convergent
earthquakes, 85% comes from shallow - Plates moving toward each other
earthquakes. Meanwhile, about 12% of energy
• Divergent
originates from intermediate earthquakes or those
- Plates move apart
quakes with a focal depth range of 60 to 300 km.
Lastly are the deep earthquakes whose origin is • Transform Fault
more than 300 km to 700 km below the Earth’s - Plates slide or grind past each other.
surface.

Convergence of Oceanic Plates

o Like the first type of convergent boundaries
discussed earlier, converging oceanic plates will
cause formation of trenches, and these trenches
will become sources of earthquakes. Underwater
earthquakes, especially the stronger ones, can
generate tsunamis. The Japanese term for “harbor
wave”, tsunami is a series of ocean waves with very
long wavelengths (typically hundreds of
kilometers) caused by large-scale disturbances of
the ocean.