Plate Boundaries

• The edges of
different pieces of
The lithosphere
meet at lines
called plate
boundaries
 Plate Boundaries
• These are found at the edge of the
lithospheric plates. These are the areas
where two plates meet, separate, or slide
past each other.
 So the plates move.
Now What?

•As the plates move,

they produce changes
in Earth’s surface,
including volcanoes,
earthquakes, mountain
ranges, and deep-
ocean trenches.
 3 Types of Plate Boundaries

Divergent Divergent

Convergent

Transform
Transform
 3 Types of Boundaries

Divergent boundary= two plates move

apart
• Magma rises and creates new crust
or seafloor
Causes: mid-
ocean ridges,
rift valleys,
new crust ,
volcanoes
 Divergent Boundaries

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Diverging Africa
Diverging Iceland
 3 Types of Boundaries

• Convergent= when two tectonic

plates push into one another.
 Convergent Boundaries

• Continental vs. Continental

• Continental vs. Oceanic

• Oceanic vs. Oceanic

 Continental vs. Continental
•When two continental
crustal plates collide,
the continents buckle
upward and form
mountains.

Himalayas- Asia
When two continental plates
collide, the rocks in between
them are pushed upward that
result to the formation of
mountains
Himalayas- Asia
 Collision between an Oceanic
Plate and a Continental Plate

•The oceanic plate

slides under the
continental plate.

•The continental crust

crumbles and forms
new mountains.
• When an oceanic plate collides with
a continental plate, the oceanic
ceust tends to be denser and thinner
than the continental crust, so the
denser plate gets bent and pulled
under the lighter and thicker
continental crust.
 Oceanic vs. Continental
• Ex: Andes mtn in S.
America

Cascade Mtns. in N. A
Mt. St. Helens
 Oceanic vs. Oceanic

•Two oceanic plates coll

ide, one of the oceanic
plates slides
under the other.
•also called a subductio
n zone
• When two oceanic plates collide, the
denser plate dives under the other.
This process is called subduction. It
leads to the melting rocks in the
mantle that trigger the formation of
volcanoes as the magma rises
beneath the surface.
Oceanic vs.
Oceanic Hawaiian
Islands
 Transform boundary

• When two tectonic plates slide past each

other horizontally

Produces?
Earthquakes
San Andrea
s Fault
New Madrid Fault
 How do the plates move?

• CONVECTION CURRENTS
• Hot material rises while
cooler material near the
surface sinks
• Convection example
How do the plates
move?
• CONVECTION CURRENTS
• Hot material from deep within the Earth
rises while cooler material near the
surface sinks
Convection currents