Can anyone explain what a transform plate boundary is in the simplest terms?
Transform faults typically form as a result of horizontal movement in either a sinistral or a dextral direction in association with mid oceanic ridges. These occur in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as well as in other oceans & therefore occur deep under the sea. However, the most famous transform faults occur on land where plate boundaries have been ‘jogged’ laterally, often reappearing at the other side of an area of land. The San Andreas fault in California is a major transform fault which runs from somewhere near the Salton Sea (meet East Pacific Rise) to the Mendocino Triple Junction (meet Mendocino fault). New Zealand’s Alpine fault is a transform fault, Pakistan’s Chaman fault is a transform fault & Turkey’s North Anatolian fault is a transform fault. All these faults are highly significant in terrms of local fault movements & the gradual evolution of global plate tectonics. Their presence together with that of the plate boundary with which they are associated probably arises a
