Regions Where The Continents Or The Sea Floor Are Pulling Apart Are Called

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Regions Where The Continents Or The Sea Floor Are Pulling Apart Are Called?

Divergent boundary (where plates are pulled apart by tensional forces)—When plates diverge spreading centers form creating new oceanic crust. Examples include mid-ocean ridges in world’s ocean basins. Spreading centers occur where continents are pulling apart.

What forms when two of Earth’s plates pull apart?

When two continental plates diverge a valleylike rift develops. This rift is a dropped zone where the plates are pulling apart. As the crust widens and thins valleys form in and around the area as do volcanoes which may become increasingly active.

What happens when two tectonic plates pull apart?

It happens when two tectonic plates pull apart and rock from the mantle rises up through the opening to form new surface rock when it cools. It happens at the start of a new ocean and continues at the mid-ocean ridge while the ocean is opening. It is associated with rifting (large-scale faulting) and volcanoes.

What happens when the plates crash together pull apart and slide against each other?

When oceanic or continental plates slide past each other in opposite directions or move in the same direction but at different speeds a transform fault boundary is formed. No new crust is created or subducted and no volcanoes form but earthquakes occur along the fault.

What causes separation of plates?

The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion or tectonic shift. … That’s because it did millions of years before tectonic shift separated the two great continents.

What do you call a fault where two blocks of crust pull apart and create space?

Both the San Andreas and Anatolian Faults are strike-slip. Normal faults create space. Two blocks of crust pull apart stretching the crust into a valley. … Reverse faults also called thrust faults slide one block of crust on top of another.

What is a region where the crustal plates are moving apart?

Divergent boundaries occur where two plates move apart from each other. This happens at the mid-ocean ridges where seafloor spreading and volcanic activity continuously add new oceanic crust to the oceanic plates on both sides. Examples are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise.

Where are tectonic plates located in the earth?

In plate tectonics Earth’s outermost layer or lithosphere—made up of the crust and upper mantle—is broken into large rocky plates. These plates lie on top of a partially molten layer of rock called the asthenosphere.

What is the boundary found where plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges?

Mid-ocean ridges occur along divergent plate boundaries where new ocean floor is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates spread apart.

What happens during sea floor spreading?

Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries. As tectonic plates slowly move away from each other heat from the mantle’s convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense. The less-dense material rises often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor. Eventually the crust cracks.

Where Earth’s plates move they may slide alongside one another pull apart or?

transform

There are many different types of plate boundaries. For example sections of Earth’s crust can come together and collide (a “convergent” plate boundary) spread apart (a “divergent” plate boundary) or slide past one another (a “transform” plate boundary).

What happens when continents collide?

In geology continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction whereby the subduction zone is destroyed mountains produced and two continents sutured together.

What happens when continental and oceanic plates collide?

When an oceanic and a continental plate collide eventually the oceanic plate is subducted under the continental plate due to the high density of the oceanic plate. … As time goes on the hot magma rising upward from the subduction zone causes further compression of the mountain belt.

What are plate boundaries called when they are separating?

Divergent boundaries. Divergent boundaries occur along spreading centers where plates are moving apart and new crust is created by magma pushing up from the mantle.

Which part of the mantle is also part of the lithosphere?

The lithosphere includes the brittle upper portion of the mantle and the crust the outermost layers of Earth’s structure. It is bounded by the atmosphere above and the asthenosphere (another part of the upper mantle) below.

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How did the continents move?

Today we know that the continents rest on massive slabs of rock called tectonic plates. The plates are always moving and interacting in a process called plate tectonics. … As the seafloor grows wider the continents on opposite sides of the ridge move away from each other.

What do you call a region where two plates meet?

When two tectonic plates meet we get a “plate boundary.” There are three major types of plate boundaries each associated with the formation of a variety of geologic features. … Most divergent plate boundaries are underwater and form submarine mountain ranges called oceanic spreading ridges.

What is rock faulting?

A fault is a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock. Faults allow the blocks to move relative to each other. … Earth scientists use the angle of the fault with respect to the surface (known as the dip) and the direction of slip along the fault to classify faults.

What are these parts of the fault model where are they located?

The main components of a fault are (1) the fault plane (2) the fault trace (3) the hanging wall and (4) the footwall. The fault plane is where the action is. It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping.

What are tectonic plates Class 9?

A Tectonic plate (also called lithospheric plate) is a massive irregularly shaped slab of solid rock generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. Plate size can vary greatly from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across the Pacific and Antarctic Plates are among the largest.

What are the movement of plates?

The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent where plates move into one another divergent where plates move apart and transform where plates move sideways in relation to each other. They move at a rate of one to two inches (three to five centimeters) per year.

What are the 4 types of tectonic plate movement?

What are the major plate tectonic boundaries?

Divergent: extensional the plates move apart. Spreading ridges basin-range.
Convergent: compressional plates move toward each other. Includes: Subduction zones and mountain building.
Transform: shearing plates slide past each other. Strike-slip motion.

Where are the continental plates?

A continental plate is exemplified by the North American Plate which includes North America as well as the oceanic crust between it and a portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Where are the tectonic plates located in the United States?

The interior of the main continental landmass includes an extensive granitic core called a craton. Along most of the edges of this craton are fragments of crustal material called terranes which are accreted to the craton by tectonic actions over a long span of time.

Where are the tectonic plates in Australia?

The Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate in the eastern and largely southern hemispheres. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana Australia remained connected to India and Antarctica until approximately 100 million years ago when India broke away and began moving north.

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What is ocean-ocean convergent boundary?

At an ocean-ocean convergent boundary one of the plates (oceanic crust and lithospheric mantle) is pushed or subducted under the other (Figure 4.6. 1). … It mixes with the overlying mantle and the addition of water to the hot mantle lowers the crust’s melting point and leads to the formation of magma (flux melting).

Where are convergent boundaries located?

Convergent boundaries occur between oceanic-oceanic lithosphere oceanic-continental lithosphere and continental-continental lithosphere. The geologic features related to convergent boundaries vary depending on crust types. Plate tectonics is driven by convection cells in the mantle.

What type of plate boundary is occurring in the Mid Atlantic Ridge?

divergent

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and part of the longest mountain range in the world.

What is the bottom of the sea called?

seabed

The seabed (also known as the seafloor sea floor ocean floor and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as ‘seabeds’.

What is sea-floor spreading theory?

seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones known collectively as the mid-ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them.

How does seafloor spreading theory explain the drifting of continents?

Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere. … Older rocks will be found farther away from the spreading zone while younger rocks will be found nearer to the spreading zone.

What causes the plates to be pulled apart quizlet?

As two plates move past each other the plates get stuck and stop moving. Stress builds up where the plates are “stuck.” Eventually the stress is too great and the rocks break suddenly moving apart.

Which tectonic boundary results when two tectonic plates pull apart from each other?

A divergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other. Along these boundaries earthquakes are common and magma (molten rock) rises from the Earth’s mantle to the surface solidifying to create new oceanic crust.

Which type of boundary when two tectonic plates move away from one another?

Divergent boundaries

Divergent boundaries – where two plates are moving apart.

Divergent boundaries can form within continents but will eventually open up and become ocean basins. Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce rifts which produce rift valleys.