What Are Some Of The Geologic Characteristics Of Plate Boundaries?

There are many geologic features which are associated with the three different boundaries of the tectonic plates. The most important of these are the earthquake belts. In addition to the earthquake belts, there are many other large scale geologic features are associated with the plate boundaries, such as the narrow mountain belts and the chains of the volcanoes.

The boundaries of the convergence in which the tectonic plates move toward each other, are recognized by trenches in the deep sea, the mountain belts and the volcanoes, and the paired belts of the mélange and the magmatism, the earthquake belts at convergent plate boundaries are inclined. The Andes Mountains and the trenches of the west coast of the South America are the modern examples of the world. The ancient convergences may show as old mountain belts, such as the Appalachians or the Urals.

The divergent plate boundaries, in which the tectonic plates move away from each other, typically show as seismic, volcanic mid ocean ridges such as the Mid Atlantic Ridge in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mid Indian Ridge which is in the Indian Ocean. The transform plate boundaries, along which plates slide past each other, can be recognized by their topography, seismicity, and offsets in magnetic anomaly bands.