18. Transform Plate Boundaries
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Transform boundaries, in many places, form steps in the mid-ocean ridges.
These boundaries mark regions where one plate slips horizontally by another plate -- lithosphere is neither created or recycled, but it conserved.
Plate motion is parallel to the plate boundary and can result in very large earthquakes.
Another type of transform lies just outside our door....the well-known San Andreas fault marks the location of the transform plate boundary that runs through much of California, at least from the Gulf of California in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north.
Notice how the bay marks an area between the faults...hence it can be said that plate movements along the transform boundary have led to the formation of our bay.
Contact Don Reed
Dept. of Geology
San José State University
©Copyright 1999
June 21, 1999
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