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6.6 NOTES What are some effects of plate tectonics? Objective: Explain how plate tectonics causes changes on Earth’s surface Earthquakes- In some places, two tectonic plates slide past each other at a transform boundary. The San Andreas Fault, in California, is one example. Mountain Building- When two plates collide, the force may push oceanic crust under the continental crust. This causes the continental crust to crumple. It may even be pushed upward to form mountains. Mountains along the east and west coasts of the United States were formed this way. They are young mountains that are still being pushed upward. Two plates carrying continents may collide without one plate being pushed under the other. The Himalaya Mountains formed when the Indian plate collided with the Eurasian plate. The edges of the plates buckled, forming the mountains. Volcanoes- At subduction zones, oceanic plates are pushed back down into the hot mantle. The magma collected in underground pockets called magma chambers. When magma pushes its way through the cracks and reaches the surface, a volcano forms. Mount St. Helens formed this way. Islands- The Hawaiian islands are a chain of volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean that formed one after the other as the Pacific plate they were on drifted over a hot spot. A hot spot is a place where magma works its way to the surface within a plate. As the plate moves along over the hot spot, new layers of volcanic mountains are built up. The islands farthest northwest are the oldest, and the islands to the southeast are the youngest.