Algeria's Complex Tectonic Plate Boundaries

 

Algeria's Tectonic Plate Boundaries

by Laurel Bowen - Week 2 Blog Post for Geology 9 with Ana Garcia Garcia 

Tectonic plates are large parts that make up the lithosphere layer of the Earth.  These plates can collide, pull apart, and rub against each other, causing many natural hazards to occur where they plates meet at. The place where they meet is known as a plate boundary. There are three tectonic types. Transform type, which is the plates rubbing against each other, convergent type, which is the plates colliding, and divergent type, which is the plates pulling apart, Algeria belongs to the African tectonic plate, but the Northern part of Algeria holds the boundary for the Eurasian plate, one of the African plates's neighbors. The two plate's create a convergent tectonic type. Convergent boundaries can cause subduction zones, where one of the plates go down under the other, or form mountains by going up when the plates collide. Northern Algeria is very mountainous, which was formed from the convergent boundary. In Algeria there are common hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and flooding, which is caused by the plate boundaries drifting. Next week we will be discussing Algeria's  seismicity and what the country is doing to prevent earthquake catastrophe. 

Works Cited

Earthhow. “Plate Tectonic Types: Divergent, Convergent and Transform Plates.” Earth How, 23 Sept. 2023, earthhow.com/plate-tectonics-types-divergent-convergent-transform-plates/.

Hamai, Lamine, et al. “Flexural Behaviour of the North Algerian Margin and Tectonic Implications.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 4 Apr. 2015, academic.oup.com/gji/article/201/3/1426/769910.

Oer Commons, oercommons.org/courses/natural-disasters-new-version-coming-soon/view. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.

Tectonic Inversion and Geomorphic Evolution of ... - Wiley Online Library, agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020TC006369. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.

“Tectonic Plates of the Earth.” Tectonic Plates of the Earth | U.S. Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov/media/images/tectonic-plates-earth. Accessed 4 Feb. 2024.