Divergent margins
From GeoClasses
Where tectonic plates move apart, the crust stretches, thins and breaks. This allows the hot, molten material below the crust to find its way up. When the molten rock reaches the surface it forms a volcano. The lava supplied to the volcano eventually cools and solidifies to form new crust.
The rocks formed by cooling lava are typically basalts, which are denser than the rocks of the quartizitic continental crust.
The features that result from plates diverging depend on if the suture between plates is above or below water.
- Continental rifting - Rifting above water.
- Mid-ocean rifting - Underwater rifting.
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