The study area for this unit is the boundary between the Pacific and North Ameri

Question

The study area for this unit is the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates, in California. This is a transform plate boundary, with the two plates sliding past each other. Along this boundary, there is no active volcanism but there are many faults and frequent earthquakes.  

In most maps of tectonic plates, this plate boundary is drawn along the San Andreas Fault, which stretches 1300 km (800 miles) across western California. Review the map below and consider the distribution of earthquakes along this plate boundary. Is tectonic activity only present along the San Andreas Fault? How well is this boundary characterized by the single line of the San Andreas Fault? Explain your answer using information from the map.

North American plate San Francisco Magnitude Depth (km) 0-35 35-20 70-150 150-300 300-500 500-800 Pacific plate os Angeles Image Candsat Data SIO, NOAA US. Navy, NGA GEBCO Data LDEO-Columbia, NSF, NOAA 200 km Epicenters of earthquakes with magnitudes >- 5.0, 1973 Direction of plate motion San Andreas fault Other faults active within the last 130.000 vears

Explanation / Answer

If we see how the formation of transform boundary then we can say that if the movement of two plates (caused by the drag force applied by the asthenosphere on the tectonic plates) are in such a manner that they slide past each other then the boundary produced is known as transform boundary. Such an example is San Andreas fault in which the Pacific and the North American plate move slide past each other.

If we see the distribution of earthquakes then we can say that they are distributed only around the sand Andreas fault. And this boundary can be easily characterised by a single line of the San Andreas Fault.

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