Tectonic Processes & the Rock Cycle
{"Image DocumentName": "Tectonic Processes & the Rock Cycle", "Image ImageDescription": "At divergent plate boundaries (where the two plates are moving away from each other) a gap is left in the crust. Initially a rift valley (like in Africa) may form here, but eventually, it will fill with mantle rock and water forming an oceanic crust as in a mid-ocean ridge. This is the process that gives ocean floor and continental crust different rock types. Subduction zones form when an oceanic plate rides underneath a continental plate, as does the Pacific under the North American plate. As said earlier, this causes a hot spot that builds mountains, particularly volcanoes. These tectonic forces drive the rock cycle, where old sea floor built by sediments will be taken under in subduction zones. Magma then rises to the surface of the earth through volcanoes or crystallizes underneath the earth surface as igneous rocks. Weathering of rocks then breaks down material on the surface of the earth that erodes into the ocean as the process occurs over and over again. With this model one can picture the volcano above as Mt. Rainier. As older volcanoes such as Mt. Rainier become large and harder to penetrate, younger volcanoes form in the direction the continental plate is moving - in our area this would be Mount St. Helens.", "Image XResolution": "37", "Image YResolution": "37", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "SlidePlayer", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}