What is the primary difference between the East and west coast of North America with respect to plate tectonics?

What is the primary difference between the East and west coast of North America with respect to plate tectonics?

The main reason for the difference, Ebel says, is that the California coast is right above the boundary of two of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust. By contrast, Virginia is in the middle of a plate that stretches from the California coast to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Why are there more earthquakes in the West coast than the East Coast?

Over long periods of time, tectonic plates collide into each other and cause even more faults to form inside the tectonic plates! Therefore, since the west coast has more faults than the east coast and has multiple tectonic plates that are colliding into each other, there are many more earthquakes on the west coast.

What is the Pacific region known for?

The Pacific Northwest is highly active geologically. The region is dotted with several large active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountain Range. Such volcanoes include such Mount Shasta in northern California, Mount Hood in Oregon, Mount Saint Helens and Rainier in Washington and Mount Garibaldi in British Columbia.

What is the history of the Pacific coast?

The northern portion of the Pacific Coast, known as the Pacific Northwest, had a somewhat different history from that of California. Initial Russian interest in the Bering Strait area led to the formation in 1799 of the Russian-American Company, which established trading posts in parts of Alaska.

Why is the East and West Coast so different?

Climate. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans bring very contrasting climates to the two coasts. Most of the East coast experiences all four seasons, while the West coast has a very different climate. In Southern California, it is sunny and warm all year round with the northern part being colder and foggier.

Why does the eastern US and the western US experience wildly different intensity distributions for the same sized earthquake?

Seismic Waves Can Travel Farther in the East Eastern North America has older rocks, some of which formed hundreds of millions of years before those in the West. These older formations have been exposed to extreme pressures and temperatures, making them harder and often denser.

Why is the West coast more risk for earthquakes?

The geologic conditions and plate tectonic setting in much of the Western U.S. has resulted in the region being underlain by relatively thin crust and having high heat flow, both of which can favor relatively high deformation rates and active faulting.

What causes earthquakes on the east coast?

Earthquakes typically occur at the margins of tectonic plates where one plate dives under another, such as the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, or where two plates scrape past each other, such as the San Andreas Fault in California.

Who named the oceans?

explorer Ferdinand Magellan
The ocean’s current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favorable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means “peaceful sea”.