Download What landforms are at different plate boundaries?

What landforms are found at
different plate boundaries?
Fold mountains and Ocean Trenches
AQA Geography Year 10
Learning objectives
• Why fold mountains and ocean trenches form
at destructive plate margins.
• The difference between composite volcanoes
which are associated with destructive plate
margins and shield volcanoes which are
associated with constructive plate margins.
Fold mountains
• Young fold mountains (formed over last 65
million years) are the highest areas in the world.
• All peaks over 7000m are in central Asia,
including Mt Everest at 8,850m.
• Young fold mountains include ranges such as the
Himalayas, the Rockies, the Andes and the Alps.
• Fold mountains are large mountain ranges where
rock layers have been crumpled as they are
forced together.
The Himalayas Mountain range, northern Nepal
Height 8,848 metres
• The Rockie Mountains
USA and Canada
highest peak is Mount Elbert
in Colorado at 4,401 m
• The Andes
South America
Mount Aconcagua in Argentina
has a height of 6960 m
The Alps
The highest point is
Mont Blanc
At 4,807m
Ocean trenches
Ocean trenches are deep sections of the ocean, usually where
an oceanic plate is sinking below a continental plate.
Compare the blue ocean
trenches to the following
map of tectonic plate
margins.
Q1. At what type of plate
margin do fold mountains
and ocean trenches form?
Add the ocean trenches and
fold mountains onto your
blank maps of the world
What landforms are found at different
plate boundaries?
• Both fold mountains and ocean trenches
result from plates moving together. If both
landforms occur in the same area, they are
found in association with subduction.
• If fold mountains occur by themselves, they
are in areas where collision is taking place.
Formation of fold mountains
• Animation
Composite and Shield Volcanoes
Low rounded peak
Eruptions are frequent and nonviolent
Wide base and gentle slopes
Layers of runny lava (low viscosity) with
little ash.
Multiple layers of thick lava and ash
Steep slopes and narrow base
Eruptions infrequent but often violent
VISCOSITY
• Viscosity is the resistance a material has to change in form.
• Low Viscosity = NOT STICKY
= Fast flowing.
CREAM!
• High Viscosity = STICKY
= Slow flowing.
TREACLE!
Activities
1. Write five questions you
would ask to find out
about the contrasts
between a composite and
shield volcano.
2. Swap questions with a
partner and answer their
questions.
3. What were the good
points about the
questions you have just
answered? How might
they be improved?
Popocatepetl composite volcano in
Mexico is on the Ring of Fire!
Mauna Loa, Hawaii, is an excellent
example of a shield volcano
What is happening here?
Which type of volcano would you associate with
this activity and why?