Earth Sciences 2240F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, Juan De Fuca Plate, North American Plate
26 Feb 2018
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Chapter 6: other earthquakes: transform and intraplate faults. In the other category earthquakes on transform faults get all the press. Interesting earthquake within a continental plate that"s just categorized as an intraplate" quake is rare. Transform fault: one block of rock moved laterally past another. Transform faults are an inevitable result of shifting lithosphere segments around on a sphere. A lot of transform faults that bound segments of the sphere adjacent to the spreading boundary represented by the mid-atlantic ridge. Most transform faults are found on ocean oors. The earthquakes that result from motions on those breaks are small because the ocean lithosphere is thin and little stress can be built up. The motion is mostly horizontal so theres no signi cant vertical displacement of water. The most famous transform faults are found on land. On land transform faults connect convergent and/or divergent plate boundaries in various combinations. The san andreas fault of california is an example.
