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  2. Continental margin - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_margin

    These active margins can be convergent or transform margins, and are also places of high tectonic activity, including volcanoes and earthquakes. The West Coast of North America and South America are active margins. [4] Active continental margins are typically narrow from coast to shelf break, with steep descents into trenches. [4] Convergent ...

  3. Continental shelf - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_shelf

    Though the continental shelf is treated as a physiographic province of the ocean, it is not part of the deep ocean basin proper, but the flooded margins of the continent. [18] Passive continental margins such as most of the Atlantic coasts have wide and shallow shelves, made of thick sedimentary wedges derived from long erosion of a neighboring ...

  4. Geology of the Appalachians - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Appalachians

    Continental collisions raised the Appalachian-Ouachita chain to a lofty mountain range on the scale of the present-day Himalayas. The massive bulk of Pangea was completed near the end of the Paleozoic era (the Permian period) when Africa plowed into the continental agglomeration, with the Appalachian-Ouachita mountains near the middle. [10]

  5. Continental arc - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_arc

    A continental arc is a type of volcanic arc occurring as an "arc-shape" topographic high region along a continental margin.The continental arc is formed at an active continental margin where two tectonic plates meet, and where one plate has continental crust and the other oceanic crust along the line of plate convergence, and a subduction zone develops.

  6. Geology of North America - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_North_America

    On the West coast of North America, the coast ranges and the coastal plain form the margin, which is partially bounded by the San Andreas Fault, a transform boundary of the Pacific Plate. Most of the land is made of terranes that have been accreted onto the margin. In the north, the insular belt is an accreted terrane, forming the margin.

  7. Geology of the United States - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_United_States

    The Cascade Range is formed by an active continental margin. A slice of the Earth from the Pacific Ocean through the Pacific Northwest might look something like the adjacent image. Beneath the Cascades, a dense oceanic plate plunges beneath the North American plate; a process known as subduction. As the oceanic slab sinks deep into the Earth's ...

  8. Orogeny - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orogeny

    Orogeny (/ ɒ ˈ r ɒ dʒ ə n i /) is a mountain-building process that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An orogenic belt or orogen develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted to form one or more mountain ranges.

  9. Accretionary wedge - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretionary_wedge

    Active margins characterized by a significant proportion of fine-grained sediment within the incoming section, such as northern Antilles and eastern Nankai, exhibit thin taper angles, whereas those characterized by a higher proportion of sandy turbidites, such as Cascadia, Chile, and Mexico, have steep taper angles. Observations from active ...