Skip to main content
Geosciences LibreTexts

6.1: Introduction to Tectonic Forces

  • Page ID
    12805
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    Learning Outcomes

    This chapter has several goals and objectives:

    • Describe the causes of tectonic stress and how they influence earthquakes and volcanoes.
    • Understand where earthquakes and volcanoes are located around the world and why.
    • Explain geologic structures that lead to folding and faulting of the physical landscape.
    • Determine how the composition of magma determines the explosiveness of the volcanic eruption.
    • Describe the various types of fault lines and volcanoes and the landforms they form.

    Essential Questions

    • Could humans live in places along the Wasatch Front without the Wasatch fault and the earthquakes it causes?
    • How does plate tectonics explain where and why earthquakes and volcanoes occur where they do?
    • What role do earthquakes and volcanoes have on civilization? What benefits do they bring us?
    • How could understanding Earth’s tectonic forces help save lives?
    • What beneficial roles do tectonic forces have ecologically and for humanity?
    CC licensed content, Shared previously

    6.1: Introduction to Tectonic Forces is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

    • Was this article helpful?