Which boundary type moves horizontally past each other, producing strike-slip faults?

Which boundary type moves horizontally past each other, producing strike-slip faults?

• A. Divergent boundaries
• B. Transform boundaries
• C. Convergent boundaries
• D. Hotspots

Answer: (B)

Transform boundaries involve two tectonic plates sliding horizontally past one another. The motion is shear, which causes rocks to grind side by side along faults. This horizontal sliding is what leads to strike-slip faults, where the fault surface forms and movement is mainly sideways rather than up or down. A well-known example is the San Andreas Fault system in California. Divergent boundaries, by contrast, pull plates apart, creating tensional stress and normal faults as new crust forms at spreading centers. Convergent boundaries push plates together, producing compressional stress and often reverse or thrust faults, building mountains or causing subduction. Hotspots are not plate boundaries at all; they are mantle plumes that can create volcanic chains independent of plate edges. So, the boundary type that moves horizontally past each other and produces strike-slip faults is the transform boundary.

Transform boundaries involve two tectonic plates sliding horizontally past one another. The motion is shear, which causes rocks to grind side by side along faults. This horizontal sliding is what leads to strike-slip faults, where the fault surface forms and movement is mainly sideways rather than up or down. A well-known example is the San Andreas Fault system in California.

Divergent boundaries, by contrast, pull plates apart, creating tensional stress and normal faults as new crust forms at spreading centers. Convergent boundaries push plates together, producing compressional stress and often reverse or thrust faults, building mountains or causing subduction. Hotspots are not plate boundaries at all; they are mantle plumes that can create volcanic chains independent of plate edges.

So, the boundary type that moves horizontally past each other and produces strike-slip faults is the transform boundary.