Transform margins
From GeoClasses
When plates slide past one another the boundary is called a transform margin, because the breaks in the crust, thefaults, where one side slides past the other are called transform faults.
West coast fault system
One of the best known examples in the US is the San Andreas fault.
- The San Andreas fault zone, which is about 1,300 km long and in places tens of kilometers wide, slices through two thirds of the length of California. Along it, the Pacific Plate has been grinding horizontally past the North American Plate for 10 million years, at an average rate of about 5 cm/yr. Land on the west side of the fault zone (on the Pacific Plate) is moving in a northwesterly direction relative to the land on the east side of the fault zone (on the North American Plate).
Aerial view of San Andreas Fault
Note: you can also find transfrom faults along the mid-Atlantic ridge.
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