The western margin of South America is a convergent plate boundary between the P
ID: 803849 • Letter: T
Question
The western margin of South America is a convergent plate boundary between the Pacific Plate made up of oceanic crust, and the South American Plate is made up of continental crust. There is an oceanic trench just offshore, and the volcanic Andes Mountains (magmatic arc) are inland.
The eastern margin of South America is a passive continental margin. This was located at a divergent plate boundary (180 mya) but now lies well within the South American plate.
Q: Formulate a hypothesis based on Plate Tectonic Theory which explains the difference in sediment thickness on the two South American continental margins (i.e. eastern and western)
Explanation / Answer
Answer:
The difference in sedment thickness along western and eastern part of the south America is due to the simple fact that is in western part nazca plate is subducting under western margin of continental crust (south America). Therefore, the thickness of sediments are very small in this region whereas in eastern margin there are no such convergent type of activity, hence this region has large sediment thickness.
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