How does a conservative plate margin work

If two continental plates collide, neither can sink and so the land buckles upwards to form fold mountains. This is called a collision margin. Earthquakes can occur at collision margins. At a constructive plate margin the plates move apart from one another. When this happens the magma from the mantle rises up to make or construct new land in the form of a shield volcano. The movement of the plates over the mantle can cause earthquakes. At a conservative plate margin , the plates move past each other or are side by side moving at different speeds.

As the plates move, friction occurs and plates become stuck. Between Y and Z it separates different parts of plate A and there is, again, no differential movement. Only those sections of transform faults between two segments of constructive boundaries e.

Transform faults continue to exhibit a topographic expression beyond the constructive plate boundaries, even though only a short length of a transform fault is active.

This topographic expression is simply a result of the different ages of adjacent oceanic lithosphere: younger lithosphere rests at a higher elevation than older lithosphere - this situation is illustrated schematically in Figure Transform faults associated with subduction zones are much less common, and destructive plate boundaries do not, in general, show the segmented structure so common in constructive boundaries.

An example occurs at the eastern end of the Cocos-Nazca Ridge, where a heavily faulted seismic zone delineates a transform fault the Panama Fracture Zone , connecting a constructive boundary the eastern end of the Costa Rica Rift, which is the easternmost part of the Cocos-Nazca Ridge with the eastern end of a destructive boundary the Middle America Trench.

Similarly, the Scotia arc in the southern Atlantic is terminated in the north by a long transform fault along the North Scotia Ridge that marks the boundary between the South American Plate and the Scotia Plate.

Occasionally, conservative plate boundaries occur in continental plates. Here, Baja and southern California including Los Angeles are moving slowly northwards relative to the rest of California. This type of transform boundary produces shallow earthquakes and accompanying ground faulting. The friction between the two plates is often so great that the two sliding margins become 'stuck' together, allowing stresses to build up, which are then relieved by large earthquakes.

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An example of a constructive plate boundary is the mid-Atlantic Ridge. A conservative plate boundary, sometimes called a transform plate margin , occurs where plates slide past each other in opposite directions, or in the same direction but at different speeds. Friction is eventually overcome and the plates slip past in a sudden movement. The shockwaves created produce an earthquake. This occurs at the San Andreas Fault in California. Plate boundaries There are a number of different types of plate boundary.