Question #6 - Final

Converging plate boundries are the ones that move together, these are in the form of trench and island arc systems. Diverging pull apart from eachother, mid-ocean ridges are created as magma from the mantle upwells through a crack in the oceanic crust and cools. Transform are plate material is neither created nor destroyed at these boundaries, but rather plates slide past each other, these boundries are where the spreading centers are offset by transform faults anywhere from a few meters to several kilometers in length. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries. In the case of earthqueakes these happen by transform or convergent type plate boundaries, which form the largest fault surfaces on earth, they will move past each other smoothly and aseismically only if there are no irregularities or asperities along the boundary that increase the frictional resistance. Three major types of valcanos are shield valcano, stratovolcano, and cinder cones. Shield volcanos are large with shallow-sloping sides. Stratovolcanoes are tall, conical volcano composed of many layers of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. Cinder cones are steep conical hill of volcanic fragments that accumulate around and downwind from a volcanic vent. The Ring of Fire is an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and plate movements. I'll use this information in the future because now I know all about how the plates effect the earth. Before I never knew how much of an impact it had on the earth. Others might say that is doesn't matter, but it does because the reason the earth is like this today is because of the plates moving. Common good would supports this because now I know and I can inform everyone about it.

Sources:
1. Maggi Glasscoe
9/8/98
http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate4.htm
2. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
8 June 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

Pictures:
1. Image:Tectonic plate boundaries.png
2. Image:Pacific Ring of Fire.png