Earth's Structure & Crust
This massive mountain range was formed by the collision of the Eurasian and Indian plates.
The Himalayas
At conservative boundaries, plates do not collide or separate; instead, they do this.
Slide past one another
In the early 1960s, Dietz and Hess suggested continents moved because of the growth of this crust between them.
Oceanic crust
Where two plates collide, this deep depression may form where one plate is forced down into the mantle.
a deep-sea trench / oceanic trench
Unlike subduction zones, collision boundaries feature the complete absence of this process, meaning plates are not forced down into the mantle
Subduction
The specific type of fault zone created when plates slide horizontally past each other.
Transform fault
This term describes how magnetic grains in cooling sea-floor lava lock in the direction of the Earth's magnetic field.
Paleomagnetism
These are a series of volcanic islands formed in an arc-shape, such as those found in the Caribbean.
Island arcs
This geological process of crushing and folding happens at collision boundaries to create young fold mountains.
Mountain building
This famous fault zone in California is a classic real-world example of a conservative plate boundary.
The San Andreas Fault
Vine and Matthews discovered that magnetic anomalies across this specific ridge were symmetrical on either side.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Deep earthquakes at subduction zones can occur down to this extreme depth below the Earth's surface.
700 km
While subduction zones have active volcanoes, volcanic activity in collision zones like the Himalayas is described as this.
What is relatively unimportant
Conservative boundaries are uniquely associated with this specific depth category of earthquakes.
Shallow earthquakes
Unlike slow-spreading ridges, fast-spreading ridges lack a central rift and feature this type of smooth topography.
A smooth topography / or lack a central rift
Subduction zones form where oceanic lithosphere collides with another plate, and they are notably more numerous in this ocean.
The Pacific Ocean
When two continental plates meet at a collision boundary, neither can sink into the mantle because continental crust has this physical property compared to the mantle.
Low Density / Buoyancy
Unlike constructive or destructive margins, conservative boundaries are characterized by neither the creation nor the destruction of this.
Crust (or lithosphere)
Fast-spreading ridges like the East Pacific Rise have large, continuous magma chambers that generate these lavas due to high discharge rates.
Sheet lavas
Subducted oceanic crust remains cooler and denser than the surrounding mantle for this long, helping drive continued subduction.
millions of years