These mid-oceanic ridges are where new seafloor is constantly created through the upwelling of new basaltic magma. Transform faults are commonly found linking segments of divergent boundaries ( mid-oceanic ridges or spreading centres). Transform faults and divergent boundaries They also act as the plane of weakness, which may result in splitting in rift zones. Transform faults specifically accommodate lateral strain by transferring displacement between mid-ocean ridges or subduction zones. Finally, transform faults form a tectonic plate boundary, while transcurrent faults do not.įaults in general are focused areas of deformation or strain, which are the response of built-up stresses in the form of compression, tension, or shear stress in rock at the surface or deep in the Earth's subsurface.

Both types of fault are strike-slip or side-to-side in movement nevertheless, transform faults always end at a junction with another plate boundary, while transcurrent faults may die out without a junction with another fault. Transform faults are closely related to transcurrent faults and are commonly confused. Difference between transform and transcurrent faults This hypothesis was confirmed in a study of the fault plane solutions that showed the slip on transform faults points in the opposite direction than classical interpretation would suggest. Slip along transform faults does not increase the distance between the ridges it separates the distance remains constant in earthquakes because the ridges are spreading centers. The new class of faults, called transform faults, produce slip in the opposite direction from what one would surmise from the standard interpretation of an offset geological feature. Geophysicist and geologist John Tuzo Wilson recognized that the offsets of oceanic ridges by faults do not follow the classical pattern of an offset fence or geological marker in Reid's rebound theory of faulting, from which the sense of slip is derived. Transform boundaries are also known as conservative plate boundaries because they involve no addition or loss of lithosphere at the Earth's surface. A smaller number of such faults are found on land, although these are generally better-known, such as the San Andreas Fault and North Anatolian Fault. This is a result of oblique seafloor spreading where the direction of motion is not perpendicular to the trend of the overall divergent boundary. They accommodate the lateral offset between segments of divergent boundaries, forming a zigzag pattern. No lithosphere is destroyed or created, and mountain chains are not built at transform boundaries. Shear stress operates at transform boundaries, which involves sliding motion. As opposed to the idealized linear movement of a strike-slip fault, the team demonstrated what geologists knew in theory, that shear strain has several stages before final movement along the fault.Plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal Diagram showing a transform fault with two plates moving in opposite directions Transform fault (the red lines)Ī transform boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move past one another. This is a similar trait we see in many systems on Earth, from rivers finding the easiest path to lower elevations to mammals taking the easiest path from point A to point B.Īs the faults propagate, the team measured how strain is transferred to different parts of the fault, a process that in real life takes millions of years and across many miles. The team found that the faults develop through a 'Lazy Earth' hypothesis, whereby the fault propagation takes the easiest path.

In one boundary condition, there is a pre-existing fault along the two slabs, in another there is a pre-existing displacement beneath the clay slabs, and in the last example the displacement is in a wider shear zone.Īfter the models were setup, the team moved the two clay slabs in opposite directions in order to measure minute changes as the strike-slip faults developed. After creating two slabs of this kaolin clay, the team setup several boundary conditions on which to test the development of the strike-slip fault. The team made sure the length to depth was scaled appropriately to mimic that on Earth and with the correct viscosity. Hatem built a miniature model of the Earth's crust using kaolin clay.

A strike slip fault