What Crustal Features Are Formed by Transform Boundaries?

Transform boundaries represent the borders found in the fractured pieces of the Earth's crust where one tectonic plate slides past another to create an earthquake fault zone. Linear valleys, small ponds, stream beds split in half, deep trenches, and scarps and ridges often mark the location of a transform boundary.

What is formed at a transform boundary?

The third type of plate boundary occurs where tectonic plates slide horizontally past each other. This is known as a transform plate boundary. As the plates rub against each other, huge stresses can cause portions of the rock to break, resulting in earthquakes. Places where these breaks occur are called faults.

What features are found at a transform plate boundary?

The grinding action between the plates at a transform plate boundary results in shallow earthquakes, large lateral displacement of rock, and a broad zone of crustal deformation. Perhaps nowhere on Earth is such a landscape more dramatically displayed than along the San Andreas Fault in western California.