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Divergent boundaries can create massive fault zones in the oceanic ridge system. Spreading is generally not uniform, so where spreading rates of adjacent ridge blocks are different, massive transform faults occur. These are the fracture zones, many bearing names, that are a major source of submarine earthquakes.
This paradoxically results in divergence which was only incorporated in the theory of plate tectonics in 1970, but still results in net destruction when summed over major plate boundaries. [2] Divergent boundaries are areas where plates move away from each other, forming either mid-ocean ridges or rift valleys. These are also known as ...
What causes earthquakes? Earthquakes occur when the plates that make up the Earth's crust move around. These plates, called tectonic plates, can push against each other.
A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. [1] It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone. [2] A transform fault is a special case of a strike-slip fault that also forms a plate boundary.
Where a continental earthquake will cause damage and loss of life on land from fires, damaged structures, and flying objects; a submarine earthquake alters the seabed, resulting in a series of waves, and depending on the length and magnitude of the earthquake, tsunami, which bear down on coastal cities causing property damage and loss of life.
Divergent boundary. Divergent boundaries (constructive boundaries or extensional boundaries). These are where two plates slide apart from each other. At zones of ocean-to-ocean rifting, divergent boundaries form by seafloor spreading, allowing for the formation of new ocean basin, e.g. the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise. As the ocean ...
Each boundary type is associated with different geological marine features. Divergent plates are the cause for mid-ocean ridge systems while convergent plates are responsible for subduction zones and the creation of deep ocean trenches. Transform boundaries cause earthquakes, displacement of rock, and crustal deformation. [8] [27] [26] [28]
The large area of subduction results in a broad swath of deep-focus earthquakes centered from Papua New Guinea to Fiji to New Zealand, although the angle of the plates' collision causes the area between Fiji and New Zealand to be the most active, with earthquakes of M w 4.0 or above occurring on an almost daily basis. [11]