What forms when 2 contnental crustal plates meet at a convergent boundary?

Answer 1

Where two crust plates meet, there are several things which can happen. One is subduction, where one plate slips under the other plate. This can cause earth quakes, but generally happens painlessly. The deepest trenches in the ocean, deeper than Mt. Everest is tall, are the dips made when one plate goes under another as subduction. Convergent contacts are when two plates "butt heads" without subduction, causing upwards buckling of one or both plates, resulting in destructive mountain building, faulting and folding. Some of the most dramatic mountainscapes in the world- the Rockies, Andes and Himalayas, are convergent plate mountains. Divergent contacts are constructive. They occur when the two adjacent plates are spreading away from one another, making a crack in the middle. This crack allows magma to come to the surface, creating new crust in the form of volcanic islands and undersea mountains. The Mid Atlantic Ridge (and Rift Valley) is a mountain range underwater from Iceland to the tip of South America caused by magma upwelling in divergent plate boundaries. Upwelling of new crust is the engine of plate spreading, as new crust actually makes the Earth's crust bigger, crowding the plates together. Transform boundaries are areas where plates are sliding along one another, causing slow and steady pressure on both plates, resulting in slip faults like the San Andreas Fault line, which is the bugaboo of California. Small slips diffuse the energy and allow for less destructive quakes- so constant quakes are a good thing. People livng on slip or transform faults hope for constant low-grade activity, instead of one big slip. One may easily illustrate these actions by pushing together two pieces of cardboard and watching what happens. The same forces may easily be seen in miniature on a frozen lake when ice floes interact.

Answer 2

When two continental crustal plates meet at a convergent boundary, the collision results in the formation of mountains, such as the Himalayas. The intense pressure and heat generated by the collision may also lead to the folding, faulting, and uplifting of the Earth's crust. Subduction can occur where one plate is forced beneath the other, leading to the formation of deep ocean trenches.