EOSC 114 Study Guide - Juan De Fuca Plate, Putty, Hard Rock

• School: UBC
• Department: Earth and Ocean Sciences
• Course: EOSC 114
• Professor: Leah May Ver

Document Summary

Describe the global distribution of earthquakes and how often quakes of various magnitudes occur: earthquakes tend to happen near plate boundaries. Plate = lithosphere = crust + top of upper mantle. Oceanic plates: fast moving (cm"s/year), young (less than 200. My), created at mid-ocean ridges, destroyed at subduction zones. Continental plates: old (buoyant, not subducted), slower moving (mm to cm) Relative motion of these plates results in . Mid-ocean ridge spreading center: tension . Understand the different types of faulting at different plate boundaries, and which plate boundaries produce the largest quakes: divergent plate boundaries: plates move apart due to tension (stretching), small-ish earthquakes, convergent plate boundaries: due to compressive forces. Continental collision: continental plates collide, tends to form mountains. Oceanic + continental: oceanic plate is subducted under continental -> volcanic activity. Oceanic + oceanic: once plate subducted under another. Convergent boundaries cause small to very large quakes. Subduction zones cause the greatest quakes located in japan, mexico,