"A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide."
Places where two continental plates collide, forming mountains such as the Himalayas.
Plate Boundaries: Where plates meet and interact, including divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries.
Subduction Zones: Places where one plate subducts (dips beneath) another, forming deep-ocean trenches, and often leads to volcanic activity.
Volcanoes: Magma (molten rock) that is generated deep within the Earth rises to the surface and erupts, creating various forms of volcanoes.
Earthquakes: Sudden violent shaking of the Earth's crust due to the movement of plates.
Plate Tectonics: The theory that describes how the Earth's crust is composed of a few large plates and dozens of smaller ones that move and interact over time.
Seismology: The study of earthquakes and seismic waves that they create.
Subduction Zones: Places where one plate drifts beneath another.
Mantle Convection: Convection currents generated by the rising and sinking of hot and cold rock within the Earth's mantle layer.
Continental Drift: The hypothesis that continents were once joined together in a single land mass but have slowly shifted apart over millions of years.
Paleomagnetism: The study of the Earth's magnetic field recorded in rocks, which provides evidence for plate motion.
Transform Faults: Places where two plates slide past each other in a horizontal motion.
Hot Spots: Areas where magma rises up through the Earth's crust, creating volcanic islands or chains that remain stationary as plates move over them.
Convergent boundary: This is a type of plate boundary where two plates are moving toward each other, resulting in the collision or subduction of one plate under the other. This collision zone results in the formation of mountain ranges, trenches, and volcanic activity.
Divergent boundary: This type of collision zone is created when two plates move apart from each other, causing the formation of new oceanic crust. This process creates long rift valleys and mid-oceanic ridges.
Transform boundary: Transform boundary exists when two plates slide past each other, causing earthquakes. This type of collision zone is characterized by the absence of volcanoes and mountain ranges.
Collision boundary: This is a type of plate boundary where two continental plates collide, causing the formation of mountain ranges. This type of collision zone is usually associated with earthquakes and complex geologic structures.
Intraplate boundary: Intraplate boundary is created when tectonic activity occurs within a tectonic plate. These zones can be due to hot spots or other geological processes, and can result in volcanic activity and earthquakes.
Subduction zone: This type of collision zone exists where one plate moves underneath another plate, creating a deep ocean trench. When oceanic and continental plates converge, the denser oceanic plate is subducted and can create volcanic mountain chains.
Back-arc basin: This zone is created behind a volcanic arc that forms on the deep ocean floor. These basins experience high rates of ocean floor spreading and can lead to the formation of submarine mountain chains.
"One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction."
"The subduction zone can be defined by a plane where many earthquakes occur, called the Wadati–Benioff zone."
"These collisions happen on scales of millions to tens of millions of years."
"These collisions...can lead to volcanism, earthquakes, orogenesis, destruction of lithosphere, and deformation."
"Convergent boundaries occur between oceanic-oceanic lithosphere, oceanic-continental lithosphere, and continental-continental lithosphere."
"Plate tectonics is driven by convection cells in the mantle."
"Convection cells are the result of heat generated by the radioactive decay of elements in the mantle escaping to the surface and the return of cool materials from the surface to the mantle."
"These convection cells bring hot mantle material to the surface along spreading centers creating new crust."
"As this new crust is pushed away from the spreading center by the formation of newer crust, it cools, thins, and becomes denser."
"Subduction begins when this dense crust converges with a less dense crust."
"The force of gravity helps drive the subducting slab into the mantle."
"As the relatively cool subducting slab sinks deeper into the mantle, it is heated, causing hydrous minerals to break down."
"This releases water into the hotter asthenosphere, which leads to partial melting of the asthenosphere and volcanism."
"Both dehydration and partial melting occur along the 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) isotherm, generally at depths of 65 to 130 km (40 to 81 mi)."
"Some lithospheric plates consist of both continental and oceanic lithosphere."
"In some instances, initial convergence with another plate will destroy oceanic lithosphere, leading to convergence of two continental plates. Neither continental plate will subduct."
"It is likely that the plate may break along the boundary of continental and oceanic crust."
"Seismic tomography reveals pieces of lithosphere that have broken off during convergence."
"This releases water into the hotter asthenosphere, which leads to partial melting of the asthenosphere and volcanism."