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Morphology Across Convergent Plate Boundaries

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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

Definition

Convergent plate boundaries are plate boundaries where one plate subducts beneath the other due to convergent plate movement. Due to its higher density, mostly oceanic lithosphere is the subducting part.

Four Types of Convergent Plate Boundaries

Four types of convergent plate boundaries are recognized (Figs. 1 and 2):

Fig. 1
figure 1

Convergent plate margins of the Earth characterized by ensimatic island arcs (underlain by oceanic crust), ensialic island arcs (underlain by continental crust), and active continental margins

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Bibliography

  • Bott, M. P. H., 1982. The Interior of the Earth: Its Structure, Constitution and Evolution, 2nd edn. London: Edward Arnold. 403pp.

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  • Doglioni, C., Harabaglia, P., Merlini, S., Mongelli, F., Peccerillo, A., and Piromallo, C., 1999. Orogens and slabs vs. their direction of subduction. Earth Science Reviews, 45, 167–208.

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  • Frisch, W., Meschede, M., and Blakey, R., 2011. Plate Tectonics. Continental Drift and Mountain Building. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer. 212pp.

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  • Nicolas, A., 1995. The Mid-Oceanic Ridges. Mountains Below Sea Level. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer. 217pp.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tübingen, Tubingen, Germany

    Wolfgang Frisch

Authors
  1. Wolfgang Frisch
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Frisch .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. Leibiniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and Lit c/o Helmholtz-Center for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Jörn Thiede

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Frisch, W. (2014). Morphology Across Convergent Plate Boundaries. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_110-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_110-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6644-0

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