Types of Tectonic Boundaries

When tectonic plates meet at convergent boundaries, they push against each other causing compression. This creates reverse faults in the rock and builds impressive mountain ranges. If one plate slides under another, we call this subduction, which forms volcanoes as rock melts beneath the surface.

Divergent boundaries work in the opposite way - plates move apart under tension forces. This movement creates normal faults and allows magma to rise from below, creating new crust. This process is responsible for sea floor spreading and the formation of oceans, seas, and islands.

At transform boundaries, plates slide horizontally past each other in a shearing motion. This creates strike-slip faults that can suddenly release built-up energy, causing dangerous earthquakes like those along California's San Andreas Fault.

Did you know? The Earth's crust comes in two main types: thin oceanic crust under the oceans and thicker continental crust where we live. The oceanic crust is constantly being created at divergent boundaries and destroyed at convergent boundaries!

The Earth's layers include the outer crust, the solid upper mantle (together forming the lithosphere), the flowing lower mantle (asthenosphere), and the core at the center. The lithosphere floats on the asthenosphere, allowing plate movement to happen.