What are the two mechanisms that geologists use to explain plate motion?
The main features of plate tectonics are: Convection currents beneath the plates move the crustal plates in different directions. The source of heat driving the convection currents is radioactivity deep in the Earths mantle.
How does ridge push move tectonic plates?
Ridge push happens at spreading centers where plates are moving apart. New parts of a plate rise because they are warm and the plate is thin. As hot magma rises to the surface at spreading ridges and forms new crust, the new crust pushes the rest of a plate out of its way. This is called ridge push.
What type of plate boundary does ridge push occur?
As the lithosphere formed at divergent plate margins is hot, and less dense than the surrounding area it rises to form oceanic ridges. The newly-formed plates slide sideways off these high areas, pushing the plate in front of them resulting in a ridge-push mechanism.
What is the result of a ridge push?
Ridge Push. Gravitational force that causes a plate to move away from the crest of an ocean ridge, and into a subduction zone.
Why is Ridge push important?
Research by Rezene Mahatsente indicates that the driving stresses caused by ridge push would be dissipated by faulting and earthquakes in plate material containing large quantities of unbound water, but they conclude that ridge push is still a significant driving force in existing plates because of the rarity of …
Why do Ridge push occur?
plate tectonics (the Mid-Atlantic Ridge), known as ridge push, in the Atlantic Ocean. This push is caused by gravitational force, and it exists because the ridge occurs at a higher elevation than the rest of the ocean floor. As rocks near the ridge cool, they become denser, and gravity pulls them away…
How is slab pull different from ridge push?
Slab Pull: The force exerted by the weight of the subducted slab on the plate it is attached to. Ridge Push: The pressure exerted by the excess height of the mid-ocean ridge.
Is a slab pull theory a form of convection?
The motion of tectonic plates is driven by convection in the mantle. There are three main forces that determine the rate at which tectonic plates move as part of the mantle convection system: slab pull: the force due to the weight of the cold, dense sinking tectonic plate.
What do you get if two continental plates are moving away from one another?
divergent boundary
When two continental plates pull apart it is called?
Divergent or constructive plate boundaries. The plates diverge and this causes the construction of new rock. It happens when two tectonic plates pull apart and rock from the mantle rises up through the opening to form new surface rock when it cools.
What plates that move away past or towards each other?
When oceanic or continental plates slide past each other in opposite directions, or move in the same direction but at different speeds, a transform fault boundary is formed. No new crust is created or subducted, and no volcanoes form, but earthquakes occur along the fault.