![]() ![]() This evidence helps to prove that new seafloor is being created at the mid-oceanic ridges and further supports the theory of plate tectonics.Īctive transform faults are between two tectonic structures or faults. These rocks are created deep inside the Earth's mantle and then rapidly exhumed to the surface. In the study done by Bonatti and Crane, peridotite and gabbro rocks were discovered in the edges of the transform ridges. As this takes place, the fault changes from a normal fault with extensional stress to a strike-slip fault with lateral stress. Finally, fracturing along these planes forms transform faults. ![]() This occurs over a long period of time with the spreading center or ridge slowly deforming from a straight line to a curved line. Evidence of this motion can be found in paleomagnetic striping on the seafloor.Ī paper written by geophysicist Taras Gerya theorizes that the creation of the transform faults between the ridges of the mid-oceanic ridge is attributed to rotated and stretched sections of the mid-oceanic ridge. Instead of the ridges moving away from each other, as they do in other strike-slip faults, transform-fault ridges remain in the same, fixed locations, and the new ocean seafloor created at the ridges is pushed away from the ridge. Transform faults move differently from a strike-slip fault at the mid-oceanic ridge. This lateral movement of seafloors past each other is where transform faults are currently active. Although separated only by tens of kilometers, this separation between segments of the ridges causes portions of the seafloor to push past each other in opposing directions. ![]() With new seafloor being pushed and pulled out, the older seafloor slowly slides away from the mid-oceanic ridges toward the continents. These mid-oceanic ridges are where new seafloor is constantly created through the upwelling of new basaltic magma. Transform faults are commonly found linking segments of divergent boundaries ( mid-oceanic ridges or spreading centres). Transform faults and divergent boundaries They also act as the plane of weakness, which may result in splitting in rift zones. Transform faults specifically accommodate lateral strain by transferring displacement between mid-ocean ridges or subduction zones. Finally, transform faults form a tectonic plate boundary, while transcurrent faults do not.įaults in general are focused areas of deformation or strain, which are the response of built-up stresses in the form of compression, tension, or shear stress in rock at the surface or deep in the Earth's subsurface. Both types of fault are strike-slip or side-to-side in movement nevertheless, transform faults always end at a junction with another plate boundary, while transcurrent faults may die out without a junction with another fault. Transform faults are closely related to transcurrent faults and are commonly confused. Difference between transform and transcurrent faults This hypothesis was confirmed in a study of the fault plane solutions that showed the slip on transform faults points in the opposite direction than classical interpretation would suggest. Slip along transform faults does not increase the distance between the ridges it separates the distance remains constant in earthquakes because the ridges are spreading centers. ![]() The new class of faults, called transform faults, produce slip in the opposite direction from what one would surmise from the standard interpretation of an offset geological feature. Geophysicist and geologist John Tuzo Wilson recognized that the offsets of oceanic ridges by faults do not follow the classical pattern of an offset fence or geological marker in Reid's rebound theory of faulting, from which the sense of slip is derived. Transform boundaries are also known as conservative plate boundaries because they involve no addition or loss of lithosphere at the Earth's surface. A smaller number of such faults are found on land, although these are generally better-known, such as the San Andreas Fault and North Anatolian Fault. This is a result of oblique seafloor spreading where the direction of motion is not perpendicular to the trend of the overall divergent boundary. They accommodate the lateral offset between segments of divergent boundaries, forming a zigzag pattern. No lithosphere is destroyed or created, and mountain chains are not built at transform boundaries. Shear stress operates at transform boundaries, which involves sliding motion. A transform boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move past one another. ![]()
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