What are they?
What is a transform boundary?
Where two tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally.
What common disaster happens at transform boundaries?
Earthquakes.
Do volcanoes form at transform boundaries?
No.
Name a famous transform boundary in the USA.
San Andreas Fault.
What layer of Earth do transform boundaries affect?
The crust.
Do the plates move toward or away from each other?
No, they move sideways.
Why do earthquakes happen?
Plates get stuck, then suddenly release pressure.
Why not?
No magma is able to form and come up.
Where is the San Andreas Fault located?
California.
Are transform boundaries found only on land?
No — they can be in oceans or continents.
Is crust made or destroyed at a transform boundary?
No, it just stays the same.
What builds up between plates before an earthquake?
Pressure.
What kind of crust movement is missing?
Up and down movement.
What two plates meet at the San Andreas Fault?
The Pacific Plate and North American Plate.
Do the plates at transform boundaries move fast or slow?
Very slow — a few inches per year.
What causes plates to get stuck sometimes?
Friction.
What does the pressure do when it's released?
Makes the ground shake — an earthquake!
What kind of plate boundary does make volcanoes?
Convergent boundaries.
Is the San Andreas Fault on land or in the ocean?
On land (continental crust).
What do we call the outer shell of Earth with plates?
The lithosphere.
What makes transform boundaries different from the other types?
Plates don’t move up/down or toward/away — just side-by-side.
True or False: Earthquakes at transform boundaries are usually small.
False. They can be very powerful.
Are there some rare cases in which a transform boundary can make a volcano?
No — not enough crust movement.
What kind of disaster is common near the San Andreas Fault?
Earthquakes.
What do you feel when a transform boundary slips?
An earthquake!