Turns out, the mountains on South Island are from a transform boundary between the Pacific plate and the Indo-Australian plate. I knew it all along! A transform boundary is when two plates are moving in opposite directions, and rubbing against each other. One plate will probably end up going underneath the other, lifting the first plate up and forming mountains. With transform boundaries, mountains do not always form. Because the plates are moving side to side, one does not always end up going underneath the other. That's just what happened in New Zealand. Here's a picture of what a Transform boundary looks like!
I think I'll stay in New Zealand a while before my next stop, and do some site seeing. (or sheep seeing!)
TTFN, tata for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment