• Question: What is the difference between converging and diverging tectonic plate margins?

    Asked by turtlesrock to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 17 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by lugia.
    • Photo: Hannah Bentham

      Hannah Bentham answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Converging plate boundaries form when 2 or more plates move towards each other in a collision zone. For continental-continental collisions, typically the crust gets pushed up into mountain ranges (like the Himalayas). For oceanic-continental collisions, you get the oceanic crust pushed beneath the continental crust, forming a subduction zone.

      Diverging plate boundaries exist when 2 or more plates move away from each other and you get hot molten rock rushing in to fill the new gap in the crust. You see this at the Mid Atlantic Ridge. Have a look on google maps satellite image in the middle of the Atlantic … can you see a broken up line that runs from north to south? That’s the ridge!

    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      The Geological Society of London have a whole section of their website dedicated to tectonic plates and how they converge and diverge, take a look for more information!
      http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Plate-Tectonics/Chap3-Plate-Margins

    • Photo: Christian Maerz

      Christian Maerz answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      All said by the others, I’m afraid 🙂 I could add that most places where plates move away from each other are in the oceans, while converging plates usually create some sort of island (lie Japan), and ultimately large areas of land.

    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      I couldn’t put it better than everyone else I’m afraid!

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