Table of Contents
What natural disasters are caused by tectonic plate movement?
A great variety of natural hazards occur on Earth, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, landslides, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and avalanches. The most destructive of these hazards, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, are mostly associated with tectonic plate boundaries.
What are the main 2 factors that contribute to the movement of plates?
Heat and gravity are fundamental to the process The energy source for plate tectonics is Earth’s internal heat while the forces moving the plates are the “ridge push” and “slab pull” gravity forces. It was once thought that mantle convection could drive plate motions.
What are two examples of things resulting from plate movements?
Deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, island arcs, submarine mountain ranges, and fault lines are examples of features that can form along plate tectonic boundaries. Volcanoes are one kind of feature that forms along convergent plate boundaries, where two tectonic plates collide and one moves beneath the other.
Which two hazards are usually located along plate boundaries?
Some of the most destructive natural hazards that occur on Earth—earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions—are associated with tectonic plate boundaries.
What causes the movement of the plates?
The plates can be thought of like pieces of a cracked shell that rest on the hot, molten rock of Earth’s mantle and fit snugly against one another. The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other.
What causes plate movements?
The main driving force of plate tectonics is gravity. If a plate with oceanic lithosphere meets another plate, the dense oceanic lithosphere dives beneath the other plate and sinks into the mantle. The sinking oceanic lithosphere drags the rest of the tectonic plate and this is the main cause of plate motion.
What are the 2 types of disaster?
The new classification distinguishes two generic disaster groups: natural and technological disasters.
What natural hazards are associated with plate boundaries and landforms?
The movement of these plates, even though it occurs on the scale of millimeters per year, makes the Western US a dynamic landscape. The dramatic result is a dizzying assortment of natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and volcanoes.
What natural disasters occur at divergent plate boundaries?
Earthquakes at divergent plate boundaries occur as new crust is created and other crust is pushed apart. This causes the crust to crack and form faults where earthquakes occur. Most earthquakes at divergent plate boundaries occur at mid-ocean ridges where two pieces of oceanic crust are moving away from each other.