Download Plate Movement Types

By James Gruich
5 th Hour
Mixon
The oceanic lithosphere sinks below the continental
lithosphere, melting about 150km and rising as magma,
causing volcanic eruptions. This plate activity occurs
and the Andes mountains in Chile, where the Nazca and
South American plates converge where land and sea
meet.
Two continental lithospheres collide and move upward to form
mountains, and as the higher layers grid upwards the lower
levels will sink downwards and melt. This is occurring where the
Indian and Eurasian plates have been colliding for millions of
years. This process formed the Himalayan mountains.
Two plates move apart, letting magma rise upward
and immediately cool and create new crust. This
plate activity occurs at the Mid-Atlantic ridge, where
Eurasian and North American, and South American
and African plates separate.
Rising hot rock forces the crust upward and is pulled apart and
pushed away by the plates. This causing large slabs of rock to
sink, forming a rift valley. Continental divergence is currently
occurring at the western edge of the Arabian plate.
Plates grind past each other without destroying the lithosphere.
This causes many earthquakes, like at the San Andreas Fault in
California.
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A mantle plume rises to the surface, creating an area of volcanism. The
magma rises and cools in the ocean to form islands like the Hawaiian
chain of islands. As the islands are created they move with the tectonic
plate, leaving space for a new island.
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