What is the process of convergent plate boundary?

What is the process of convergent plate boundary?

If two tectonic plates collide, they form a convergent plate boundary. Usually, one of the converging plates will move beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The new magma (molten rock) rises and may erupt violently to form volcanoes, often building arcs of islands along the convergent boundary.

What do you call the process in which a slab of rock thrusts into the mantle?

Subduction is the tectonic process at convergent margins by which slabs of oceanic lithosphere descend into the mantle.

What is subduction process?

A tectonic process in which one tectonic plate is forced beneath another and sinks into the mantle as the plates converge.

What is the process of oceanic lithosphere?

Seafloor Processes Oceanic lithosphere forms at midocean ridges, where hot magma upwells, and then cools to form plates as the material moves away from the spreading center. As the plate cools, heat flow decreases and the seafloor deepens (Fig. The heat flow is proportional to the temperature gradient.

What do you call the source of molten materials from the mantle?

Mantle plumes are the likely cause of “hot spots,” volcanic regions not created by plate tectonics. As a mantle plume reaches the upper mantle, it melts into a diapir. This molten material heats the asthenosphere and lithosphere, triggering volcanic eruptions.

How does subduction start?

Subduction zones form where two plates converge and one begins sliding under the other. As old lithosphere is recycled back into the mantle at subduction zones and new lithosphere is formed at spreading centers, the balance of lithosphere on Earth remains relatively constant.

How is the oceanic lithosphere formed and returned to the mantle?

Oceanic Lithosphere. Oceanic lithosphere is formed along the global mid-ocean ridge system through partial melting of upwelling mantle, and is returned to the mantle in subduction zones.

What happens to the oceanic plate at a convergent boundary?

At an ocean-continent convergent boundary, the oceanic plate is pushed under the continental plate in the same manner as at an ocean-ocean boundary. Sediment that has accumulated on the continental slope is thrust up into an accretionary wedge, and compression leads to thrusting within the continental plate (Figure 10.22).

What causes the movement of the continental plate?

Sediment that has accumulated on the continental slope is thrust up into an accretionary wedge, and compression leads to thrusting within the continental plate (Figure 10.22). The mafic magma produced adjacent to the subduction zone rises to the base of the continental crust and leads to partial melting of the crustal rock.

How are the boundaries of the oceanic crust created?

Divergent boundaries are spreading boundaries, where new oceanic crust is created from magma derived from partial melting of the mantle caused by decompression as hot mantle rock from depth is moved toward the surface (Figure 10.18).