Mondo Knows Facts
The San Andreas is a transform fault
Two plates slide past each other sideways, which is why the fault produces quakes The Pacific plate moves northwest relative to North America at roughly three to five centimetres a year. Because the plates grind rather than glide smoothly, stress builds until it releases suddenly as an earthquake. There are no volcanoes along the fault itself, since no crust is being created or destroyed there. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Earthquake magnitude rises on a log scaleEach whole number increase means about 32 times more energy releasedThe Ring of Fire hosts most of Earth volcanoes and earthquakesA horseshoe shaped belt around the Pacific Basin generates 90 percent of global quakesPrimary seismic waves travel faster through rock than secondary wavesCompressional P waves move through solid and liquid while shear S waves pass only through solidTape speed wobbles have two namesSlow drift is wow and fast tremble is flutter, both audible as pitch waverSubduction recycles old ocean floorDense seafloor sinks into the mantle and its water triggers volcanic arcsHawaii sits over a fixed mantle hotspotThe Pacific plate slides across a plume, leaving a trail of volcanic islands
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Tags: geology, earthquakes, faults
The San Andreas is a transform fault: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Two plates slide past each other sideways, which is why the fault produces quakes. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.