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In plate tectonics
Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
, a convergent boundary or convergent plate boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary (because of its cause of destruction), is an actively deforming region where two (or more) tectonic plate
Tectonic Plate

#REDIRECT Plate tectonics...
s or fragments of lithosphere
Lithosphere

File:Plates tect2 en.svgFile:Earth-crust-cutaway-english.svgThe lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet....
 move toward one another and collide. Causes most earthquakes.

When two plates move toward one another, they form either a subduction zone or a continental collision
Continental collision

Continental collision is a phenomenon of the plate tectonics of Earth that occurs at Convergent boundary. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains produced, and two continents sutured together....
. This depends on the nature of the plates involved.






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In plate tectonics
Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
, a convergent boundary or convergent plate boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary (because of its cause of destruction), is an actively deforming region where two (or more) tectonic plate
Tectonic Plate

#REDIRECT Plate tectonics...
s or fragments of lithosphere
Lithosphere

File:Plates tect2 en.svgFile:Earth-crust-cutaway-english.svgThe lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet....
 move toward one another and collide. Causes most earthquakes.

When two plates move toward one another, they form either a subduction zone or a continental collision
Continental collision

Continental collision is a phenomenon of the plate tectonics of Earth that occurs at Convergent boundary. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains produced, and two continents sutured together....
. This depends on the nature of the plates involved. In a subduction zone, the subducting plate, which is normally a plate with oceanic crust, moves beneath the other plate, which can be made of either oceanic or continental crust. During collisions between two continental plates, large mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas
Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
 are formed.

Oceanic Continental Convergence Fig21oceancont
Continental Continental Convergence Fig21contcont
Oceanic Oceanic Convergence Fig21oceanocean


Convergent margins

A subduction zone is formed at a convergent plate boundary when one or both of the tectonic plates is composed of oceanic crust
Oceanic crust

Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's lithosphere that surfaces in the ocean basins. Oceanic crust is primarily composed of mafic rocks, or Sima ....
. The denser plate, made of oceanic crust
Oceanic crust

Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's lithosphere that surfaces in the ocean basins. Oceanic crust is primarily composed of mafic rocks, or Sima ....
, is subducted underneath the less dense plate, which can be either continental or oceanic crust. When both of the plates are made of oceanic crust, convergence is associated with island arcs such as the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands

For the group of islands rather than the nation, see Solomon Islands .The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands....
.

An oceanic trench
Oceanic trench

The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor....
 is formed where the denser plate is subducted underneath the other plate. There is water in the rocks that are on the oceanic plate (because they are underwater) and as this plate moves further down into the subduction zone, much of the water contained in the plate is released in dehydration reactions. The addition of water to the mantle causes partial melting of the mantle, generating magma, which then rises, and which normally results in volcanoes. This normally happens at a certain depth, about 70 to 80 miles below the earth's surface, and so volcanoes are formed fairly close to, but not right next to the trench.

Some convergent margins have zones of active seafloor spreading behind the island arc, known as back-arc basin
Back-arc basin

Back-arc basins are geologic features, submarine basins associated with island arcs and subduction zones.They are found at some convergent boundary, presently concentrated in the Western Pacific ocean....
s.

When one plate is composed of oceanic lithosphere and the other is composed of continental lithosphere, the oceanic plate is subducted, often forming an orogenic belt
Orogeny

Orogeny refers to natural mountain building, and may be studied as a tectonic structural event, as a geographical event, and a chronological event: orogenic events cause distinctive structural phenomena and related tectonic activity, affect certain regions of rocks and crust, and happen within a specific period of time....
 and associated mountain range. This type of convergent boundary is similar to the Andes
Andes

The Andes form the world's longest exposed mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The range is over 7,000 km long, 200-700 km wide , and of an average height of about 4,000 m ....
 or the Cascade Range
Cascade Range

The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California....
 in North America.

When two plates containing continental crust collide, both are too light to subduct. In this case, a continent-continent collision occurs, creating especially large mountain ranges. The most spectacular example of this is the Himalayas
Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
.

When the subducting plate approaches the trench obliquely, the convergent plate boundary includes a major component of strike-slip faulting. The best example of this is the Sumatra
Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the list of islands by area in the world ....
 convergent margin, where convergent action is occurring intermixed with a strike-slip boundary.

Examples

  • the collision between the Eurasian Plate
    Eurasian Plate

    The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia....
     and the Indian Plate which is forming the Himalayas
    Himalayas

    The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
    .
  • subduction of the northern part of the Pacific Plate
    Pacific Plate

    The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean.To the north the easterly side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge....
     and the NW North American Plate
    North American Plate

    The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia....
     which is forming the Aleutian Islands
    Aleutian Islands

    The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming a volcanic arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about 1,200 mi westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula....
    .
  • subduction of the Nazca Plate
    Nazca Plate

    The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west coast of South America....
     beneath the South American Plate
    South American Plate

    The South American Plate is a tectonic plate covering the continent of South America and extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.The easterly side is a divergent boundary with the African Plate forming the southern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge....
     to form the Andes
    Andes

    The Andes form the world's longest exposed mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The range is over 7,000 km long, 200-700 km wide , and of an average height of about 4,000 m ....
    .
  • subduction of the Pacific Plate
    Pacific Plate

    The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean.To the north the easterly side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge....
     beneath the Australian Plate, and vice versa, forming the complex New Zealand
    New Zealand

    New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
     to New Guinea
    New Guinea

    New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the List of islands by area, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period....
     subduction/transform boundaries.
  • collision of the Eurasian Plate
    Eurasian Plate

    The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia....
     and the African Plate
    African Plate

    The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges....
     formed the Pontic Mountains
    Pontic Mountains

    The Pontic Mountains The range runs roughly east-west, parallel and close to the southern coast of the Black Sea. The highest peak in the range is Ka?kar Dagi, which rises to elevation....
     in Turkey
    Turkey

    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
    .
  • Mariana Trench
    Mariana Trench

    The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans, and the deepest location on the surface of the Earth's Crust . It has a maximum depth of about 10,911 meters , and is located in the western North Pacific Ocean, to the east and south of the Mariana Islands, near Guam....
  • subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate
    Juan de Fuca Plate

    The Juan de Fuca Plate, named after the Juan de Fuca, is a tectonic plate arising from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and subduction under the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone....
     beneath the North American Plate
    North American Plate

    The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia....
    .


Other types of plate boundaries

  • Divergent boundary
    Divergent boundary

    In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary is a linear feature that exists between two List of tectonic plates that are moving away from each other....
  • Transform fault
    Transform fault

    A transform fault or transform boundary is a Fault which runs along the boundary of a tectonic plate. The relative motion of such plates is Horizontal plane in either sinistral or dextral direction....


See also

  • Plate tectonics
    Plate tectonics

    Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
  • List of tectonic plates
    List of tectonic plates

    This is a list of tectonic plates on Earth. Tectonic plates are pieces of the Earth's Crust and uppermost mantle, together referred to as the lithosphere....
  • List of tectonic plate interactions
    List of tectonic plate interactions

    See plate tectonics for a more complete discussionTectonic plate interactions are of three different basic types:* Divergent boundary are areas where plates move away from each other, forming either mid-oceanic ridges or rift valleys....


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