Sentences with phrase «oceanic plates form»

Beghein and her research team advanced our understanding of how oceanic plates form and evolve as they age by using and comparing two sets of seismic data; the study revealed the presence of a compositional boundary inside the plate that appears to be linked to the formation of the plate itself.

Not exact matches

The Andes were formed by tectonic activity whereby earth is uplifted as one plate (oceanic crust) subducts under another plate (continental crust).

Three basic forces are believed to drive oceanic plate movement: plates are «pushed» away from mid-ocean ridges as new sea floor forms; plates are «pulled» as the oldest parts of the plate dive back into the earth at subduction zones; and convection within the asthenosphere helps ferry the plates along.

So yes, Rapa Nui sits way out in the ass end of nowhere, atop a seamount that has formed via the Easter hotspot, an upwelling of magma below the oceanic crust that has generated a range of undersea mountains (the Nazca Ridge) as the Nazca Plate drifted above it....

In this case, the quake was caused when a 620 - mile - long (1,000 kilometers) stretch of the Nazca plate, an oceanic plate that forms a large swath of the Pacific Ocean floor, lurched deeper beneath the South American plate, producing the only 9.5 - magnitude quake on record.

Beginning about 50 million years ago (and continuing to the present day), the drift of the continental plates has caused the continents of India and Eurasia to collide, pushing up oceanic crust from the bottom of the sea to form the Himalayan mountain chain and the Tibetian plateau.

The CO2 pools form when one oceanic plate buckles under another and carbonates in the sediment break down under the intense heat.