How do plate movements drive the rock cycle?
Plate movements influence the rock cycle in a number of ways. First of all, at a mid-ocean ridge, where the plates are moving away from each other, magma rises up through the division which cools to form basalt (an extrusive igneous rock). Second of which at subduction zones (where the oceanic crust collides with the continental crust and subducts), the basalt is subducted underneath the continental granite and is melted. At continental-continental convergence zones, where mountains are formed, because of the pressure the rocks are deformed and form into metamorphic rocks.
