In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary or convergent plate boundary, also known as a destructive plate boundary (because of subduction), is an actively deforming region where two (or more) tectonic plates or fragments of lithosphere move toward one another and collide and where crust is being destroyed. [Wikipedia]
In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary (also known as a constructive boundary or an extensional boundary) is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other and new crust is being formed. [Wikipedia]
Are where similar plant and animal fossils are found around different continent shores, suggesting that they were once joined. [Wikipedia]
A fracture zone is a linear oceanic feature--often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long--resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics. Lithospheric plates on either side of an active transform fault move in opposite directions; here, strike-slip activity is possible. Fracture zones extend past the transform faults, away from the ridge axis; seismically inactive (because both plate segments are moving in the same direction), they display evidence of past transform fault activity.
The location where two plates meet is called a plate boundary. it is often a broad zone where the plate interactions are not well understood. [Wikipedia]
A rift is a place where the Earth's crust and lithosphere are being pulled apart[1] and is an example of extensional tectonics. [Wikipedia]
Stress regimes are shear zones. A shear zone or shear is a wide zone of distributed shearing in rock. Typically this is a type of fault but it may be difficult to place a distinct fault plane into the shear zone. Shear zones may form zones of much more intense foliation, deformation, and folding. [Wikipedia]
A subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates move towards one another and subduction occurs. [Wikipedia]
There is increasing evidence that most ophiolites are generated when subduction begins and thus represent fragments of fore-arc lithosphere. This led to introduction of the term "supra-subduction zone" (SSZ) ophiolite in the 1980s to acknowledge that some ophiolites are more closely related to island arcs than ocean ridges. [Wikipedia]
A suture is where a fragment of crustal material is accreted to crust lying on another plate. [Wikipedia]
Transpression regimes are formed during oblique collision of tectonic plates and during non-orthogonal subduction. [Wikipedia]
Transtension regimes are oblique tensional environments where stretching takes place. [Wikipedia]
A transform plate boundary is where two lithospheric plates slide past each other and where crust is neither produced or destroyed. [Wikipedia]
A thrust fault system is one in which the higher side of the fault moves upward. [Wikipedia]
The Galapagos Triple Junction is a geological area in the eastern Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of the Galapagos Islands where three tectonic plates - the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate and the Pacific Plate - meet. [Wikipedia]
Are neighboring ridges on different tectonic plates which have similar seismic characteristics. "Based on similar seismic velocity gradients of the lavas of the Carnegie, Cocos and Malpelos Ridges there is evidence that the hotspot activity has been the result of a single long mantle melt rather than multiple periods of activity and dormancy." [Wikipedia]
An Ophiolite is a section of the Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted or emplaced to be exposed within continental crustal rocks. [Wikipedia]
A location where belts of high pressure, low temperature metamorphism on the oceanic side are associated with belts of high pressure, high temperature metamorphism on the continent side. [Wikipedia]
A rift valley is a linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. [Wikipedia]
A flood basalt or trap basalt is the result of a giant volcanic eruption or series of eruptions that coats large stretches of land or the ocean floor with basalt lava. Flood basalts have occurred on continental scales (large igneous provinces) in prehistory, creating great plateaus and mountain ranges. [Wikipedia]