Continental crust, the outermost layer of Earth’s lithosphere that makes up the planet’s continents and continental shelves and is formed near subduction zones at plate boundaries between continental and oceanic tectonic plates. The continental crust forms nearly all of Earth’s land surface.

The continental crust is the layer of granitic, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores (continental shelves).

As with oceanic crust, continental crust is created by plate tectonics. At convergent plate boundaries, where tectonic plates crash into each other, continental crust is thrust up in the process of orogeny, or mountain-building. Continental crust is almost always much older than oceanic crust.

What happens when two continental plates collide? Instead, a collision between two continental plates crunches and folds the rock at the boundary, lifting it up and leading to the formation of mountains and mountain ranges.

When two continental crusts converge,both crusts exert a pressure pushing each other. As the ground rises, a tall landform is created.

As mentioned earlier in the lesson, the Himalayan Mountain chain is one of the best examples of continental collision on Earth. Two tectonic plates–named the Indian and Eurasian plates–are colliding. Parts of the Himalayas are actually still growing as the plates continue to collide into each other.

It is possible to have the collision of two oceanic plates, an oceanic plate and a continental plate or two continental plates. Subduction occurs when there is a difference in the density of the plates….Plate Tectonics.

Examples of ocean-continent convergent boundaries are subduction of the Nazca Plate under South America (which has created the Andes Mountains and the Peru Trench) and subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate under North America (creating the Cascade Range).

Iceland is an example of a country undergoing a continental divergent boundary. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge divides Iceland and is the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The East Africa Rift Valley is an example of a continental divergent boundary.

The mid-Atlantic ridge is an example of a divergent boundary, where the Eurasian Plate that covers all of Europe separates from the North American Plate. This underwater mountain range is constantly growing as new crust is formed. Further up that same boundary, it passes through Iceland.

A divergent plate boundary on land rips apart continents (Figure below). When plate divergence occurs on land, the continental crust rifts, or splits. This effectively creates a new ocean basin as the pieces of the continent move apart. This is how continents split apart.

Deep ocean trenches, volcanoes, island arcs, submarine mountain ranges, and fault lines are examples of features that can form along plate tectonic boundaries. Volcanoes are one kind of feature that forms along convergent plate boundaries, where two tectonic plates collide and one moves beneath the other.

Examples of continent-continent convergent boundaries are the collision of the India Plate with the Eurasian Plate, creating the Himalaya Mountains, and the collision of the African Plate with the Eurasian Plate, creating the series of ranges extending from the Alps in Europe to the Zagros Mountains in Iran.

Effects that are found at a divergent boundary between oceanic plates include: a submarine mountain range such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; volcanic activity in the form of fissure eruptions; shallow earthquake activity; creation of new seafloor and a widening ocean basin.

Transform boundaries are places where plates slide sideways past each other. At transform boundaries lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed. Many transform boundaries are found on the sea floor, where they connect segments of diverging mid-ocean ridges. California’s San Andreas fault is a transform boundary.

divergent boundary

Answer. It’s a convergent plate boundary.

Answer. Answer: Explanation: Space is the bounderies of each plate and shows plate inclusion, separation and deviation.

Tectonic Plates and Plate Boundaries

• Convergent boundaries: where two plates are colliding. Subduction zones occur when one or both of the tectonic plates are composed of oceanic crust.
• Divergent boundaries – where two plates are moving apart.
• Transform boundaries – where plates slide passed each other.

There are seven major plates: African, Antarctic, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, Pacific and South American. The Hawaiian Islands were created by the Pacific Plate, which is the world’s largest plate at 39,768,522 square miles.

Divergent boundaries are occur in oceans and lower mantle.

Most volcanoes form at the boundaries of Earth’s tectonic plates. Volcanoes are most common in these geologically active boundaries. The two types of plate boundaries that are most likely to produce volcanic activity are divergent plate boundaries and convergent plate boundaries.

At convergent plate boundaries, where tectonic plates crash into each other, continental crust is thrust up in the process of orogeny, or mountain-building. For this reason, the thickest parts of continental crust are at the world’s tallest mountain ranges.

Oceanic crust is found under oceans, and it is about four miles thick in most places. Continental crust varies between six and 47 miles in thickness depending on where it is found. Continental crust tends to be much older than the oceanic kind, and rocks found on this kind of crust are often the oldest in the world.

The Earth’s continental crust is highly variable in geologic composition and internal structure, with a mean thickness of 40 km (24 mi). The oceanic crust is relatively young and dynamic, having a maximum age of only 200 million years, with most of it produced at mid-ocean ridges during seafloor spreading.

noun A small hollow or pit; especially, a pit left by a pustule of smallpox.

What causes preauricular pits? Preauricular pits occur during the development of an embryo. It most likely occurs during the formation of the auricle (the outer part of the ear) during the first two months of gestation.

Humans have drilled over 12 kilometers (7.67 miles) in the Sakhalin-I. In terms of depth below the surface, the Kola Superdeep Borehole SG-3 retains the world record at 12,262 metres (40,230 ft) in 1989 and still is the deepest artificial point on Earth.