What are the effects of the movement of divergent boundaries?

What are the effects of the movement of divergent boundaries?

Effects that are found at a divergent boundary between oceanic plates include: a submarine mountain range such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; volcanic activity in the form of fissure eruptions; shallow earthquake activity; creation of new seafloor and a widening ocean basin.

What are the effect of movement of the plates?

Plate motions cause mountains to rise where plates push together, or converge, and continents to fracture and oceans to form where plates pull apart, or diverge. The continents are embedded in the plates and drift passively with them, which over millions of years results in significant changes in Earth’s geography.

What does a divergent plate boundary cause?

When two plates are moving away from each other, we call this a divergent plate boundary. Along these boundaries, magma rises from deep within the Earth and erupts to form new crust on the lithosphere. As the plates rub against each other, huge stresses can cause portions of the rock to break, resulting in earthquakes.

What are the effect of the divergence between continental plates?

Plate Divergence on Land When plate divergence occurs on land, the continental crust rifts, or splits. This effectively creates a new ocean basin as the pieces of the continent move apart. In continental rifting, magma rises beneath the continent, causing it to become thinner, break, and ultimately split apart.

How do plates move at Transform plate boundaries?

A transform plate boundary occurs when two plates slide past each other, horizontally. A well-known transform plate boundary is the San Andreas Fault, which is responsible for many of California’s earthquakes. The movement of Earth’s tectonic plates shape the planet’s surface.

What are the effects of convergent plate boundaries?

Effects found at a convergent boundary between continental plates include: intense folding and faulting, a broad folded mountain range, shallow earthquake activity, shortening and thickening of the plates within the collision zone.

What forms at divergent boundary?

The main type of rock found at divergent plate boundaries is igneous. These rocks are formed when magma cools and becomes solid, either above or below ground.

Which feature forms at a divergent boundary?

When divergent boundaries occur in continental plates, a different geological feature, called a rift valley, is formed. These depressions slowly fill with water, forming lakes, as their level drops. Ultimately, they will form the floor of a new ocean.

What forms when plates diverge?

As the name implies, divergent boundaries are formed when two adjacent tectonic plates separate, i.e., when they diverge. When tectonic plates start to diverge, the linear feature formed is called a rift. Sometimes, the gap widens and sometimes it stops. When the gap eventually widens, it then evolves into a rift valley .

What landforms are formed at divergent plate boundaries?

Rising magma can also create shield volcanoes. Landforms at a divergent plate boundary include ocean ridges, eg the Mid-Atlantic ridge (where the Eurasian plate and the North Atlantic plate are moving apart from each other under the Atlantic Ocean), rift valleys eg the East African Rift Valley and shield volcanoes.