Table of Contents
What happens when an oceanic plate slides under a continental plate?
When oceanic crust converges with continental crust, the denser oceanic plate plunges beneath the continental plate. This process, called subduction, occurs at the oceanic trenches. The subducting plate causes melting in the mantle above the plate. The magma rises and erupts, creating volcanoes.
What causes one oceanic plate to slide under another oceanic plate?
Plates Subduct When an ocean plate collides with another ocean plate or with a plate carrying continents, one plate will bend and slide under the other. This process is called subduction. A deep ocean trench forms at this subduction boundary.
What is it called when an oceanic plate slides under a continental plate?
At some convergent boundaries, an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate. Oceanic crust tends to be denser and thinner than continental crust, so the denser oceanic crust gets bent and pulled under, or subducted, beneath the lighter and thicker continental crust. This forms what is called a subduction zone.
Why do oceanic plates move under continental?
When an oceanic plate converges with a continental plate, the oceanic crust will always subduct under the continental crust; this is because oceanic crust is naturally denser. This melting leads to heat being transferred upwards and uplifting the crust, eventually developing into a volcano.
What will happen if 2 oceanic plates collide?
When two oceanic plates collide one oceanic plate is eventually subducted under the other. As the subducting plate descends into the mantle where it is being gradually heated a benioff zone is formed. This benioff zone is a zone of shallow,intermediate and deep focused earthquakes.
What happens when plate slide past each other?
When oceanic or continental plates slide past each other in opposite directions, or move in the same direction but at different speeds, a transform fault boundary is formed. No new crust is created or subducted, and no volcanoes form, but earthquakes occur along the fault.
Why do oceanic plates sink below continental plates?
Continental plates contain most of the world’s land; oceanic plates are formed under the sea, and are both thinner and denser. As a result, oceanic crust tends to subduct (sink) below the continental crust wherever their boundaries meet. What plate always subducts?
Why does the oceanic crust subduct the continental crust?
Bacause they are composed of material that is denser than that of the continental crust. As such ocernic crust is less bouyant than contiental crust and so where oceanic crust collides with continental crust, the oceanic srust tends to be forced beneath the continetal crust.
What happens when tectonic plates converge in a subduction zone?
Where tectonic plates converge, the one with dense, thin oceanic crust subducts beneath the one with thick, more buoyant continental crust. An accretionary wedge forms between the converging plates as material is scraped off the subducting plate.
Subduction Zones. When the leading edge of a dense tectonic plate meets the leading edge of a less-dense plate, the denser plate bends downward. This place where the denser plate subducts is called a subduction zone. Oceanic subduction zones almost always feature a small hill preceding the ocean trench itself.