what is slab pull?

What is a slab pull simple definition?

Slab Pull: The force exerted by the weight of the subducted slab on the plate it is attached to. Ridge Push: The pressure exerted by the excess height of the mid-ocean ridge.

How does a slab pull work?

“slab pull” As lithospheric plates move away from midocean ridges they cool and become denser. They eventually become more dense than the underlying hot mantle. After subducted, cool, dense lithosphere sinks into the mantle under its own weight. This helps to pull the rest of the plate down with it.

What is slab pull a level geography?

Slab pull: Cold, dense oceanic plate is subducted beneath less dense continental plate; the density of the the oceanic plate pulls itself into the mantle – this is slab pull. This occurs at destructive margins.

What is slab pull quizlet?

Slab pull. The process that results when a dense oceanic plate sinks beneath a more buoyant plate along a subduction zone, pulling the rest of the plate that trails behind it.

Why slab pull is important?

Slab pull is the force exerted by a dense oceanic plate sinking into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary. Slab pull is a key force acting on plate motion because it has been proven to greatly affect the velocity of a plate, not to mention create dramatic volcanoes.

Is slab pull a form of convection?

The motion of tectonic plates is driven by convection in the mantle. … There are three main forces that determine the rate at which tectonic plates move as part of the mantle convection system: slab pull: the force due to the weight of the cold, dense sinking tectonic plate.

What causes slab pull?

Slab Pull. As a crustal plate moves further from an oceanic ridge, it cools and becomes increasingly dense. … The weight of this sinking, cooling plate causes a major pulling action, which causes the rest of the plate to be pulled downwards as well.

Who came up with slab pull?

Slab pull is that part of the motion of a tectonic plate caused by its subduction. In 1975 Forsyth and Uyeda used the inverse theory method to show that, of the many forces likely to be driving plate motion, slab pull was the strongest.

What type of plate boundary is created by slab pull?

Slab pull occurs at a convergent boundary and subduction zone. The force of the dense oceanic plate subducting under the continental plate and gravitationally being pulled into the mantle results in the rest of the plate being pulled along with it. Ridge push occurs along a divergent boundary.

What is slab pull GCSE geography?

Slab pull occurs where older, denser tectonic plates sink into the mantle at subduction zones. As these older sections of plates sink, newer and less dense sections of plate are pulled along behind. Sinking in one place leads to plates moving apart in other places.

What is the difference between Ridge pull and slab pull?

Ridge push is caused by the potential energy gradient from the high topography of the ridges. Slab pull is caused by the negative buoyancy of the subducting plate.

Does gravity cause slab pull?

In the current understanding of plate motion the movement is driven by the weight of cold, older, dense plate material sinking into the mantle at deep ocean trenches and pulling the rest of the plate slab with them as gravity causes them to slide downwards.

Which of the following are characteristics of slab pull quizlet?

The following are characteristics of slab pull: Subducting plates move faster than non-subducting plates. Gravity is a major force in slab pull. Subducting oceanic lithosphere is denser than asthenosphere.

What is ridge push simple?

Gravitational force that causes a plate to move away from the crest of an ocean ridge, and into a subduction zone. It works together with Slab Pull, but is much less significant. See also Slab Pull.

What is ridge push and slab pull quizlet?

ridge-push. a mechanism that may contribute to plate motion; it involves the oceanic lithosphere sliding down the oceanic ridge under the pull of gravity. slab-pull. a mechanism that contributes to plate motion in which cool, dense oceanic crust sinks into the mantle and “pulls” the trailing lithosphere along.

What is mantle convection theory?

Mantle Convection. Mantle convection describes the movement of the mantle as it transfers heat from the white-hot core to the brittle lithosphere. The mantle is heated from below, cooled from above, and its overall temperature decreases over long periods of time. All these elements contribute to mantle convection.

What is trench suction?

Trench Suction (fig. … Trench Suction is thought to result from small-scale convection in the mantle wedge, driven by the subducting lithosphere. This force is difficult to isolate from other forces because of how little we know about mantle convection in the shallow subsurface (Ziegler, 1993).

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What is in the asthenosphere?

The asthenosphere is solid upper mantle material that is so hot that it behaves plastically and can flow. The lithosphere rides on the asthenosphere.

Why is slab pull considered the main driving mechanism of plate motion?

As the plate sinks into the mantle, it acts to pull the rest of the plate behind it. This force is considered by some to be the primary force driving plate motion at collisional zones ( Wilson , 1993). … The slab pull force only works when the subducting slab is well attached to the plate it is pulling behind it.

Why plates are moving?

Tectonic shift is the movement of the plates that make up Earth’s crust. … The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion, or tectonic shift.

Which resisting force of plate movement opposes the slab pull?

Collisional Resistance Collisional Resistance

This force directly opposes the slab pull force. It occurs as the heavy basaltic plate is pulled down into the mantle. The collisional force occurs because the mantle, although less dense than the subducting plate, still resists subduction to some extent due to friction.

How does slab pull cause plates to move?

One explanation for plate movements is slab pull. Plates are extremely heavy so gravity acts upon them, pulling them apart. … The convection currents move the plates. Where convection currents diverge near the Earth’s crust, plates move apart.

What do the lithospheric plates move?

Explanation: Convection currents in the mantle cause the heating of Earth’s plates and therefore, cause them to move. When warm material rises up, the cold material sinks down and this pattern repeats over and over. This causes the plates to rise and move.

What causes ridge push?

plate tectonics

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(the Mid-Atlantic Ridge), known as ridge push, in the Atlantic Ocean. This push is caused by gravitational force, and it exists because the ridge occurs at a higher elevation than the rest of the ocean floor. As rocks near the ridge cool, they become denser, and gravity pulls them away…

What is the direction of slab pull?

Slab suction occurs when a subducting slab drives flow in the lower mantle by exerting additional force down in the direction of the mantle’s convection currents. … They cause both the subducting and overriding plate to move in the direction of the subduction zone.

What are the plate driving forces?

Heat and gravity are fundamental to the process

The energy source for plate tectonics is Earth’s internal heat while the forces moving the plates are the “ridge push” and “slab pull” gravity forces. It was once thought that mantle convection could drive plate motions.

What are the 3 causes of plate movement?

Lesson Summary

Additional mechanisms that may aid in plates moving involve ridge push, slab pull and trench suction. In ridge push and slab pull, gravity is acting on the plate to cause the movement.

What is slab rollback?

Slab rollback occurs during the subduction of two tectonic plates, and results in seaward motion of the trench. … The driving force for rollback is the negative buoyancy of the slab with respect to the underlying mantle modified by the geometry of the slab itself.

What are the 3 main types of plate boundaries?

Divergent boundaries — where new crust is generated as the plates pull away from each other. Convergent boundaries — where crust is destroyed as one plate dives under another. Transform boundaries — where crust is neither produced nor destroyed as the plates slide horizontally past each other.

How are the forces of slab pull and ridge push related to plate motions?

How are the forces of slab-pull and ridge-push related to plate motions? In slab pull, gravity pulls cool, dense oceanic lithosphere down into the mantle. In ridge push, gravity causes stiff oceanic lithosphere to slide down the asthenosphere, which is elevated near mid-ocean ridges.

What is slab geography?

In geology, the slab is a portion of a tectonic plate that is subducted. Slabs constitute an important part of the global plate tectonic system. … Geologists have imaged slabs down to the seismic discontinuities between the upper and lower mantle and the core–mantle boundary.

What is the crust geography?

“Crust” describes the outermost shell of a terrestrial planet. Earth’s crust is generally divided into older, thicker continental crust and younger, denser oceanic crust. … Beneath the crust is the mantle, which is also mostly solid rocks and minerals, but punctuated by malleable areas of semi-solid magma.

What is the Earth made of ks3?

It is a very dense solid made from iron and nickel. The outer core is 2,000 km thick and is a liquid. The mantle is semi-molten and about 3,000 km thick. The crust is the rocky outer layer.

What is gravitational sliding?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ridge push (also known as gravitational sliding) or sliding plate force is a proposed driving force for plate motion in plate tectonics that occurs at mid-ocean ridges as the result of the rigid lithosphere sliding down the hot, raised asthenosphere below mid-ocean ridges.

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Mechanism of Plate Tectonics: Mantle Convection Theory, Slab Pull Theory

Ridge Push:Slab Pull

Plate Tectonic Movement Mechanisms

Slab Pull Demo | How Tectonic Plates can PULL on Each Other to Speed SUBDUCTION (using paper clips)


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