Plate Tectonics Hypothesis - UW Courses Web...

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Earth’s crust is broken into about 12 rigid plates Plates move ~ cm/year 3 types of plate boundaries:

divergent creation of new seafloor convergent return of crust to Earth’s interior transverse

Plate Tectonics Hypothesis

Spreading Subduction Plate motion

transform

Earth’s Tectonic Plates

East Pacific Rise Topography

Divergent plate boundary

opening at 15 cm/yr

East-African Rift

opening at 6 mm/yr

Convergent Plate Boundaries: Ocean-Ocean

Kavachi, Soloman Islands March 26, 2002

Convergent Plate Boundaries: Ocean-Continent

Andes

Convergent Plate Boundaries: Continent-Continent

Himalayas

Examples of Plate Boundaries

O-O convergent

O-O divergent

O-C convergent

O-C convergent

O-O divergent

C-C divergent

O-O divergent

San Andreas Fault

Transform Boundaries

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

San Andreas Fault

Transform Boundaries

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

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