Three Types of Convergent Plate Boundaries - Essay Example

One movement affects the other and according to the American Museum of Natural History, “it [Earth’s crust] is made up of thick, interconnecting pieces called tectonic plates that fit together like a puzzle.”

All the plates in the world, whether major or minor, whether oceanic or continental, have some bearing on each other at one point. There are three known types of plate boundaries and one of these three is a convergent plate boundary. When a foremost plate transposes between each other, meeting borderlines of these plates encounter along it. As a result, earthquakes are generated due to the large amounts of forces and energies that are released when these plates encounter one another at their boundaries. The majority of the most formidable earthquakes have been the result of these convergent plate boundaries.  In addition, in convergent plate boundaries, two plates move and one of them is subducted, or moved underground as the other supersedes above. Where the outermost layer of the Earth, the crust is broken and split and is reprocessed into the mantle is called the Subduction Zone. “These are recognized as Subduction Zones, a major site of volcanism on Earth.” (Eggins 159)

Convergent plate boundaries are further categorized into three types, named after the two different kinds of plates that are involved. First is the Oceanic-Continental Plate Convergence. This happens when a continental plate supersedes and overrides an oceanic plate, pushing this oceanic plate underneath the continental plate. The usual landform that is created or produced is a mountain range, a strip of mountains that are linked together by elevated ground. As written in Geology.com contributed by Hobart King, “The Andes Mountain Range of western South America is another example of a convergent boundary between an oceanic and continental plate. Here the Nazca Plate is subducting beneath the South American plate.”

            The second type of a convergent plate boundary is a. This time, the two plates that are involved are both oceanic plates. Thus, this second type is called the oceanic-oceanic plate convergence and the landform that is created is a trench, an extensive and great hollow dent that is located in the ocean’s floor. The deepest part of the world is the Mariana Trench, which is nearly thirty-six thousand feet deep, was the result of this. Furthermore, aside from trenches that indicate subduction zones, landforms such as volcanoes underwater are also produced. The remains after an eruption mount for a lengthy period. Once it rises above the level of the sea, it becomes an island volcano or an island arc. The Philippines which is located in Southeast Asia, is an island archipelago that was formed because of an oceanic-oceanic plate convergence.

            The last of these three types is the continental-continental plate convergence. It is unlike the two others that were aforementioned as none of the two continental plates are subducted or moved under.