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Plate Boundaries: Earth's Surface Is Dramatically Reshaping Itself in An Endless, Slow-Motion Movement Called Plate

The document summarizes the three main types of plate boundaries: divergent boundaries, convergent boundaries, and transform boundaries. 1) At divergent boundaries, like mid-ocean ridges, tectonic plates pull away from each other and new crust is generated as magma rises from the Earth's mantle and cools into new oceanic crust. 2) At convergent boundaries, plates push together, with one plate subducting under the other. This leads to phenomena like volcanoes, mountain building, and deep ocean trenches. 3) At transform boundaries, like the San Andreas Fault, plates slide past each other horizontally with neither creation nor destruction of crust.

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101 views

Plate Boundaries: Earth's Surface Is Dramatically Reshaping Itself in An Endless, Slow-Motion Movement Called Plate

The document summarizes the three main types of plate boundaries: divergent boundaries, convergent boundaries, and transform boundaries. 1) At divergent boundaries, like mid-ocean ridges, tectonic plates pull away from each other and new crust is generated as magma rises from the Earth's mantle and cools into new oceanic crust. 2) At convergent boundaries, plates push together, with one plate subducting under the other. This leads to phenomena like volcanoes, mountain building, and deep ocean trenches. 3) At transform boundaries, like the San Andreas Fault, plates slide past each other horizontally with neither creation nor destruction of crust.

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daisy soriano
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SCIENCE 10

QUARTER 1, Week 2

PLATE BOUNDARIES
The places on Earth where most of the earthquakes originated or some mountains and volcanoes
were formed mark the boundaries of each lithospheric plate. As mentioned earlier, each plate is slowly
moving relative to each other, causing geologic events to happen along their boundaries.
Earth’s surface is dramatically reshaping itself in an endless, slow-motion movement called plate
tectonics.
Tectonic plates or huge slabs of solid rocks
separate, collide, and slide past each other
causing earthquakes, feeding volcanic eruptions,
and raising mountains. Scientists now have a fairly
good understanding of how the plates move and
how such movements relate to earthquake
activity. Most movement occurs along narrow
zones between plates, plate boundaries, where
the results of plate-tectonic forces are most
evident.
Types of plate boundaries:
1. Divergent boundaries -- where new crust is
generated as the plates
pull away or separates from each other.
Examples: mid ocean ridge, rift valleys
2. Convergent boundaries -- where crust come
together. One crust is destroyed as it dives
under another, known as subduction.
Examples: subduction, Marianas trench,
mountains, volcanoes
3. Transform boundaries -- where crust is neither
produced nor destroyed as the plates slide
horizontally past each other. Example: San
Andreas fault

Plates Move Apart: Divergent Boundary


Atlantic ocean, along a global system of mountain
ridges, Earth’s plates are growing and spreading
apart. Each year these oceanic spreading ridges
erupt more than three times as much molten rock as
do all the volcanoes on land. Magma rises from
Earth’s mantle at spreading ridges and cools on and
beneath the ocean floor, adding to the plates on
either side. The growing plates inch away from the
ridges—widening ocean basins and rafting apart
entire continents.

Plates Come Together: Convergent Boundary


Where plates come together, or converge, we see some dramatic manifestations of plate tectonics. At
convergent margins, continents grow as plates are consumed.
Three types of Convergent Boundaries
1. Convergent boundary between continental and oceanic crust results to subduction, volcanoes, and
trenches.
2. Convergent boundary between two oceanic crust results to subduction, and the trenches formed are
deeper like the Marianas Trench, which can sink Mt. Everest.
SCIENCE 10
QUARTER 1, Week 2

3. Convergent boundary between two continental


crust results to building up the rocks forming
mountains like the Appalachian and Himalayas
mountain ranges.

Plates Pass By: Transform Boundary


Why do earthquakes shake California? The state
straddles two plates that are moving past each other like
trains on opposite tracks. The plate boundary is marked
by a zone of active faults—breaks in the rock and
ground surface caused by plate movements. The most
famous of these is the 1200-km (750-mi) long San
Andreas Fault. The San Andreas fault is a transform
fault, a kind common on the sea floor but rarely found
on land.

Activity 4:

5. Which of the above boundaries can produce volcanoes?_________________________________


SCIENCE 10
QUARTER 1, Week 2

6. At which of the above boundaries is sea floor created?___________________________________

7. At which of the above boundaries is sea floor destroyed?_______________________________________


8. What are the three sub‐types of convergent plate boundaries?__________________________________

ACTIVITY 5:

Quiz no. 2
1. Molten rock flows onto the seafloor and hardens as it cools.

2. Hot, molten rock is forced upward toward the seafloor at a mid‐ocean ridge

3. New seafloor moves away from the ridge, cools, becomes denser and sinks.

4. Molten rock pushes sideways in both directions as it rises.

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