The Geology of Plate Margins

Abstract

Copies of this attractive chart will be hung in the halls of many earth science departments. Types of plate margins and intraplate features are presented in semicircular array in logical order from maximally divergent to maximally convergent: intraoceanic spreading (fast, moderate, slow); passive continental margins; intracontinental rifts and basins; transtensional, transform, and transpressional systems; convergent oceanic arcs (“migratory,” “detached,” “stationary”); convergent continental margins (“noncontracted,” “contracted”); and continent‐continent collision. Each type is illustrated by a cross‐sectional diagram, examples of the type are named, and its attributes are described briefly in wedged boxes narrowing toward the center of the semicircle: volcanism and plutonism, seismicity, metamorphism, structures, mineral deposits, and sedimentary basins and sediments.