What type of plate boundary is the Kermadec Trench?
convergent plate boundary
Table of Contents
Geological setting. The Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from the southwest of the Kermadec Plate (northeast of New Zealand) to the northwest tip of the Tonga Plate, with the Pacific Plate being subducted under both the Kermadec and Tonga Plates.
What type of convergent boundary is the Tonga Trench?
The Tonga Trench-Arc system is an extension-dominated, non-accretionary convergent margin. The Pacific Plate is being subducted westward in the trench.
What 2 tectonic plates are converging at the Tonga Trench?
The island archipelago of Tonga sits at the junction of two major tectonic plates – the Indo-Australian plate in the west and the Pacific Plate in the east. It is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” that encircles the entire ocean basin.
What plate is Tonga located on?
Tonga sits at the junction of two major tectonic plates, the Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate.
What type of plate is the Tonga Plate?
southwest Pacific tectonic plate
The Tonga Plate is a small southwest Pacific tectonic plate or microplate.
Is Tonga Plate a continental or oceanic?
The Tonga – Kermadec subduction system is an intra- oceanic convergent plate margin in the southwestern Pacific that extends for 2550 km between Tonga and New Zealand (Fig. 1).
How was the Kermadec Trench formed?
The Kermadec Trench is one of Earth’s deepest oceanic trenches, reaching a depth of 10,047 metres (32,963 ft). Formed by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Indo-Australian Plate, it runs parallel with and to the east of the Kermadec Ridge and island arc.
What type of plate boundary caused the Tonga eruption?
The Tonga plate is subducting the Pacific plate along the Tonga Trench. This subduction turns into a transform fault boundary north of Tonga. An active rift or spreading center separates the Tonga Plate from the Australian Plate and the Niuafo’ou microplate to the west.
Is Tonga plate a continental or oceanic?
What caused the Kermadec Islands earthquake?
M 7.4 earthquake near Kermadec Islands, New Zealand occurred as the result of reverse faulting in the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone, which extends north-northeast from the North Island of New Zealand for more than 2,500 km through Tonga to within 100 km of Samoa.
Is Tonga located on a subduction zone?
The Tonga subduction zone in the south-west Pacific is the fastest convergent plate boundary in the world with the most active mantle seismicity. This zone shows unique tectonic features including Samoan volcanic lineament of plume-driven origin near the northern rim of the Tonga subducting slab.
Is the Tonga volcano near a plate boundary?
Which plate boundary feature is most likely to cause the formation of volcanoes?
Sometimes, the plates collide with one another or move apart. Volcanoes are most common in these geologically active boundaries. The two types of plate boundaries that are most likely to produce volcanic activity are divergent plate boundaries and convergent plate boundaries.
Why does New Zealand have earthquakes?
New Zealand is on the boundary between two of these plates, called the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. These plates are constantly grinding into each other, which causes stresses to build up in the brittle, upper layers of the plates.
Does anyone live on the Kermadec Islands?
Story summary. The Kermadec Islands are a group of small volcanic islands, 800–1,000 kilometres north-east of the North Island. A nature reserve, they are uninhabited, except for a Department of Conservation field station on Raoul Island, the main island.
Is the Pacific plate a tectonic plate?
The Pacific Plate is by far the largest tectonic plate on Earth, and its APM relative to the underlying mantle is predominantly determined by negative buoyancy forces related to subduction (e.g., Chapple and Tullis, 1977; Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni, 2002; Forsyth and Uyeda, 1975; Hager and O’Connell, 1981; Lithgow- …
What are 4 types of plate boundaries?
Plate Boundaries and Hotspot Demonstration
- Divergent Plate Boundary. Volcanic eruptions and shallow earthquakes are common where plates rip apart.
- Convergent Plate Boundary.
- Transform Plate Boundary.
- Hotspot.
What is the example of convergent boundary?
The Pacific Ring of Fire is an example of a convergent plate boundary. At convergent plate boundaries, oceanic crust is often forced down into the mantle where it begins to melt. Magma rises into and through the other plate, solidifying into granite, the rock that makes up the continents.
Is New Zealand in Ring of Fire?
New Zealand lies at the south-west end of a vast horseshoe-shaped zone of intense volcanism and earthquakes. This zone extends, essentially unbroken, around the margins of the Pacific Ocean – the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire.
Does the Earth ring like a bell?
The Earth’s entire atmosphere vibrates like a giant bell, with various large-scale resonant waves travelling in both directions around the globe. That is the conclusion of scientists in Japan and the US, who have confirmed a nearly two-centuries-old hypothesis of atmospheric resonance.
Who owns Kermadec Island?
New Zealand
Kermadec Islands, volcanic island group in the South Pacific Ocean, 600 mi (1,000 km) northeast of Auckland, New Zealand; they are a dependency of New Zealand.
How were the Kermadec Islands formed?
The Islands are the summits of large volcanoes that have been built up on the crest of the Kermadec Ridge, and have emerged above sea level. The ridge stretches for 600 to 700 km north-north-east, and has been upraised by the ongoing collision between the Pacific and Australian plates.
Is the Pacific plate convergent or divergent?
The Pacific Plate constitutes most of the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean. On its northern side, the Plate subducts under the North-American Plate, forming a convergent boundary and the Aleutian Trench along the islands of the same name.
What are the 4 types of plate tectonics?
There are four types of boundaries between tectonic plates that are defined by the movement of the plates: divergent and convergent boundaries, transform fault boundaries, and plate boundary zones.
What are the 3 major plate boundaries?
Divergent boundaries — where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other. Convergent boundaries — where crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another. Transform boundaries — where crust is neither produced nor destroyed as the plates slide horizontally past each other.