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Sep 22, 2020 · Shaded relief map of the U.S. highlighting different tectonic settings. Superimposed in red are the more than 400 National Park System sites. Letter codes are abbreviations for parks on Tectonic Settings pages and the Tectonic Settings—Master List on the Plate Tectonics & Our National Parks page.
- Tectonic Landforms & Features
As the subducting plate reaches depths where it “sweats” hot...
- Physiographic Provinces
The contiguous United States (the 'Lower 48') are divided...
- Tectonic Landforms & Features
- Structure
- Boundaries
- Geology
- Formation
The outermost part of Earth's structure is known as the lithosphere. The lithosphere consists of the crust and small portion of the upper mantle. The lithosphere is divided into a number of tectonic plates. These plates move and interact with one another, driven by convectional forces within the Earth. The map at the top of this page shows the geog...
The edges of Earth's lithospheric plates have boundaries which are both well defined and poorly defined. Well-defined boundaries include mid-ocean ridges and ocean trenches. These boundaries are usually well enough defined that they can be plotted on a map at a reasonably accurate location. The boundary between the North America Plate and the Euras...
Mid-ocean ridges are divergent boundaries where convection currents in the mantle lift the ocean floor and produce a rift in the lithosphere that follows the crest of the ridge. New lithosphere is created by volcanic activity along the crest of the ridge, and the plates on either side of the ridge are moving away from one another.
Ocean trenches form where a plate with a leading edge of oceanic lithosphere collides with another plate. In these situations, an oceanic plate normally subducts into the mantle, forming a topographic low on the ocean floor. The point on the seafloor where the colliding plates are in contact is normally considered to be the geographic location of t...
Examine crustal deformation near the plate boundary in California. Investigate the northwest-trending lineaments in Oklahoma and Texas. Study the east-northeast-trending lineament from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon. Discuss the vast extent of basin-and-range province from Texas to Oregon.
- Andrew Alden
- Convergent Boundaries. The teeth along the convergent boundaries mark the upper side, which is overriding the other side. The convergent boundaries correspond to subduction zones where an oceanic plate is involved.
- Divergent Boundaries. Continental divergent plates exist in East Africa and Iceland, but most of the divergent boundaries are between oceanic plates. As the plates split apart, whether, on land or the ocean floor, magma rises to fill in the empty space.
- Transform Boundaries. Notice that the divergent boundaries are periodically broken up by black transform boundaries, forming a zigzag or staircase formation.
- Hotspots. The U.S. Geological Survey map also lists the Earth's major hotspots. Most volcanic activity on Earth occurs at divergent or convergent boundaries, with hotspots being the exception.
The United States has two of the most extensive and best-studied examples: Hawai’i and Yellowstone. Hawaiian Hot Spot The big island of Hawaii is the active end of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain , which stretches across the Pacific for almost 6000 km.
Dec 5, 2022 · Shaded relief map of United States, highlighting National Park Service sites at a Continental Hotspot. Letters are abbreviations for NPS sites listed below. Sites in the the Columbia Plateau of Oregon and Washington, the Snake River Plain of Idaho, and the Yellowstone Plateau of Wyoming lie along the track of the Yellowstone Hotspot that is ...
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Feb 11, 2020 · Shaded relief map of United States, highlighting National Park Service lands in modern and ancient Continental Rift Zones. Letters are abbreviations for park names revealed by clicking on the lists below.
