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What would happen if an oceanic and continental plate collide?

What would happen if an oceanic and continental plate collide?

As the plates collide, the oceanic plate is forced beneath the continental plate. This is known as subduction and results in the formation of an ocean trench. This happens because the oceanic plate is denser (heavier) than the continental plate. When the plate sinks into the mantle it melts to form magma.

What can a collision between continental plates do?

Collision Zones and Mountains Instead, a collision between two continental plates crunches and folds the rock at the boundary, lifting it up and leading to the formation of mountains and mountain ranges.

What is the difference between oceanic plates and continental plates?

Oceanic plates are much thinner than the continental plates. At the convergent boundaries the continental plates are pushed upward and gain thickness. The rocks and geological layers are much older on continental plates than in the oceanic plates. The Continental plates are much less dense than the Oceanic plates.

What are the 4 boundaries?

Tectonic Plates and Plate Boundaries

  • Convergent boundaries: where two plates are colliding. Subduction zones occur when one or both of the tectonic plates are composed of oceanic crust.
  • Divergent boundaries – where two plates are moving apart.
  • Transform boundaries – where plates slide passed each other.

What causes the plates to move at a fault line?

Normal faults are associated with downward movement on a sloping fault as the two plates move apart. The stretching of the Earth’s crust is indicative of this type of event. Thrust faults are caused by plates pulling apart and colliding with continental plates.

What causes the plates to move?

Earth’s crust, called the lithosphere, consists of 15 to 20 moving tectonic 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.

What is the area between the oceanic plate and the continental plate called?

subduction zone
When oceanic crust converges with continental crust, the denser oceanic plate plunges beneath the continental plate. This process, called subduction, occurs at the oceanic trenches (figure 6). The entire region is known as a subduction zone.

What are the 2 oceanic plates?

An example of an oceanic plate is the Pacific Plate, which extends from the East Pacific Rise to the deep-sea trenches bordering the western part of the Pacific basin. A continental plate is exemplified by the North American Plate, which includes North America as well as the oceanic crust…

What are examples of transform boundaries?

Some examples of continental transform boundaries are the famous San Andreas fault, the Alpine fault in New Zealand, the Queen Charlotte Island fault near western Canada, the North Anatolian fault in Turkey, and the Dead Sea rift in the Middle East.

What are the different types of boundaries in relationships?

5 Types Of Boundaries For Your Relationship

  • Physical Boundaries. Physical boundaries refer to your body, privacy, and personal space.
  • Emotional Boundaries. In order to establish emotional boundaries, you need to be in touch with your feelings.
  • Sexual Boundaries.
  • Intellectual Boundaries.
  • Financial Boundaries.

What are the 3 causes of plate movement?

Mantle dynamics, gravity, and Earth’s rotation taken altogether causes the plate movements. However, convectional currents are the general thought for the motion.

How fast do tectonic plates move?

They can move at rates of up to four inches (10 centimeters) per year, but most move much slower than that. Different parts of a plate move at different speeds. The plates move in different directions, colliding, moving away from, and sliding past one another. Most plates are made of both oceanic and continental crust.

What happens when the Oceanic and continental plates collide?

Ocean-ocean collision zone 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. Once again a benioff zone forms where there are shallow intermediate and deep focus earthquakes.

What is the result of a plate collision?

As the plates continue to collide fold – thrust mountain belts that develop along the zone of collision. Currently the highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas represent this kind of event. The Himalayas resulted from a collision of the plate containing India with the plate containing Eurasia.

What happens when two plates with low density collide?

When two plates that have low density continental lithosphere collide with one another subduction ceases because the continental lithosphere has too low of a density to be subducted. As the plates continue to collide fold – thrust mountain belts that develop along the zone of collision.

How are plate boundaries related to the subduction zone?

A plate capped by thin oceanic crust subducts beneath one capped by thick continental crust, forming an accretionary wedge and volcanic arc on the overriding plate. The ocean closes as a continent with thick crust approaches the subduction zone.