The San Andreas fault of California is a prime example of a continental transform boundary; others are the North Anatolian fault of northern Turkey, the Alpine fault crossing New Zealand, the Dead Sea rift in the Middle East, the Queen Charlotte Islands fault off western Canada, and the Magellanes-Fagnano fault system of South America. As the plates grind past each other, the jagged edges strike each other, catch, and stick, "locking" the plates in place for a time. As these plates move past one another, the two plates interact and can create cracks or faults within the surrounding area. When the plates finally give and slip due to the increased pressure, energy is released as seismic waves, causing the ground to shake. Earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault can greatly upset cities along its length, including the San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco/Oakland areas. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone.. Reverse (thrust) faults are common in areas of compression. A transform boundary is a place where two of the Earth’s tectonic plates move past one another. The San Andreas Fault is just one of many active earthquake faults in a broad zone of shearing along the transform plate boundary in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unlike divergent (constructive) and convergent (destructive) plate boundaries, lithosphere at transform boundaries is neither created nor destroyed deeming them “conservative” plate boundaries. Most seismic activity occurs at three types of plate boundaries—divergent, convergent, and transform. Transform faults can be distinguished from the typical strike-slip faults because the sense of movement is in the opposite direction (see illustration). Transform boundaries and the resulting faults produce many _____ because edges of tectonic plates are jagged rather than _____. surface and undergrounds A __ is an area of many fractured pieces of crust that lie along a large fault. Most such faults are found in oceanic crust, where they accommodate the lateral offset between segments of divergent boundaries… While this is the basic definition of a transform boundary, there’s more to them than that. Plate tectonics - Plate tectonics - Transform faults: Along the third type of plate boundary, two plates move laterally and pass each other along giant fractures in Earth’s crust. Transform boundaries occur where the Earth’s tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally along transform or strike-slip faults. Transform faults are so named because they are linked to other types of plate boundaries. The majority of transform faults link the offset segments of oceanic ridges. For example, the New Madrid Fault is a massive fracture in Missouri. 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. Over time, this fault has caused the Mississippi River to run a different course. As the plates grind past each other, the jagged edges strike each other, catch, and stick, "locking" the plates in place for a time. Linear valleys, small ponds, stream beds split in half, deep trenches, and scarps and ridges often mark the location of a transform boundary. But faults can occur within plates as fractures as well. Many transform faults that are part of this fault system cannot be seen cannot be seen on the __ of Earth, but instead are __. As the plates move past each other, they sometimes get caught and pressure builds up. Transform boundaries and the resulting faults produce many _____ because edges of tectonic plates are jagged rather than _____. A transform fault or transform boundary is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. Transform boundaries and the resulting faults produce many __earthquake_____ because edges of tectonic plates are jagged rather than __smooth_____. A strike-slip fault is a simple offset; however, a transform fault is formed between two different plates, each moving away from the spreading center of a divergent plate boundary. As the plates grind past each other, the jagged edges strike each other, catch, and stick, "locking" the plates in place for a time. STRIKE-SLIP: Strike-slip faults occur at transform plate boundaries.