transform fault

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transform faults

Figure 23: Two transform faults offsetting a mid-oceanic ridge.

Cross-sectional diagram showing three tectonic plates at ocean ridges, transform faults, and a subduction zone. The image illustrates rising magma forming rift and subduction volcanoes, convection currents in the mantle, and features such as ocean trenches, extinct and hot-spot volcanoes, and the movement of plates above a molten core and low-velocity mantle layer.

The Earth's crust is a jigsaw puzzle of huge rigid plates in constant relative motion. The plates are bounded by three types of features: ridge axes, where new seafloor is created in mid-ocean; transform faults, where plates slide past one another; and subduction zones, where plates overlap, with one plate sliding under the other.

transform fault: References & Edit History

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Primary Contributors

Bruce Peter Luyendyk

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Article History

Type	Description	Contributor	Date
	Add new Web site: Hyperphysics - Transform Fault Boundaries Between Plates.	Darshana Das	Sep 27, 2012
	New article added.	John P. Rafferty	Oct 08, 2009