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Essay / Understanding the Earth: its complexities and its need for...
They reshape the surface by three plate movements, the convergent limit, the divergent limit and the transformation limit. The convergent boundary, also known as the destructive plate boundary, is what creates mountains. Within this limit, two plates collide, destroying part of the Earth's crust during the impact. The collision of plates results in three different outcomes, depending on which ones collide. When oceanic and continental plates collide, a plate subducts and sinks into the mantle. The plate that subducts is usually oceanic lithosphere because it is less dense. When two ocean plates collide, one plate can be pushed under the other, causing magma to rise and create volcanoes. The third result occurs when two continental plates collide, the impact of these two colliding plates forms mountain ranges. There are five different mountain types: Fold, Fault block, Dome, Plateau and Volcanic.