Earth Science · Geology · Earth Interior / Principles and Exploration
Plate boundaries and landforms — principles and investigation
When plates on the Earth's surface move apart, move closer, or pass by each other, different landforms are created. Connect the direction of plate movement and ocean ridges, trenches, mountain ranges, and faults by changing the divergence, convergence, collision, and conservation boundaries. This is an experiment to observe how materials move at the boundary rather than just memorizing the name of the terrain.
How does it work?
Divergence creates ocean ridges and rifts, ocean-continent convergence creates trenches and volcanic arcs, continental collision creates folded mountain ranges, and preservation creates transform faults.
Subduction zone: inclined hypocenter distribution approximately 0~700 km
Try this investigation
- Change boundaries and execute plate movements. Observe the topography of the left section and the red seismic point. Conservation boundaries check flat illustration.
- Perform ocean-continent convergence and ocean plate divergence to record the maximum depth of topography and earthquakes.
- Compare the five boundaries by recording continental rifts, continental collisions, and transform faults.
Interpreting your results
How do earthquake-depth patterns differ between spreading boundaries, transform faults, and subduction zones?
The hypocenter deepens along the subducting oceanic plate. The other boundaries of the model indicate shallow earthquakes within a depth of 70 km.
Assumptions and limitations
A typical boundary cross section is expressed as a defined shape. Depth and width are different explanatory scales. Continental collision earthquakes are simplified to a thousand earthquakes in this model. We do not predict the actual time and magnitude of an earthquake or the speed of terrain formation.