Editing Transform fault (section)

==Transform faults and divergent boundaries==
Transform faults are commonly found linking segments of divergent boundaries ([[mid-oceanic ridge]]s or spreading centres).   These mid-oceanic ridges are where new seafloor is constantly created through the [[upwelling]] of new [[basaltic]] [[magma]].  With new seafloor being pushed and pulled out, the older seafloor slowly slides away from the mid-oceanic ridges toward the continents.  Although separated only by tens of kilometers, this separation between segments of the ridges causes portions of the seafloor to push past each other in opposing directions. This lateral movement of seafloors past each other is where transform faults are currently active.  
[[File:Spreading center and strips.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Spreading center and strips]]

Transform faults move differently from a strike-slip fault at the mid-oceanic ridge.   Instead of the ridges moving away from each other, as they do in other strike-slip faults, transform-fault ridges remain in the same, fixed locations, and the new ocean seafloor created at the ridges is pushed away from the ridge. Evidence of this motion can be found in paleomagnetic striping on the seafloor.

A paper written by geophysicist Taras Gerya theorizes that the creation of the transform faults between the ridges of the mid-oceanic ridge is attributed to rotated and stretched sections of the mid-oceanic ridge.<ref name=Gerya>{{cite journal|last=Gerya|first=T.|title=Dynamical Instability Produces Transform Faults at Mid-Ocean Ridges|journal=Science|year=2010|volume=329|issue=5995|pages=1047–1050| doi = 10.1126/science.1191349 |bibcode = 2010Sci...329.1047G|pmid=20798313|s2cid=10943308}}</ref> This occurs over a long period of time with the spreading center or ridge slowly deforming from a straight line to a curved line. Finally, fracturing along these planes forms transform faults. As this takes place, the fault changes from a normal fault with extensional stress to a strike-slip fault with lateral stress.<ref name=Bonatti>{{cite journal|author1=Bonatti, Enrico|author2=Crane, Kathleen|title=Oceanic Fracture Zones|journal=Scientific American|year=1984|volume=250|issue=5|pages=40–52|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0584-40|bibcode=1984SciAm.250e..40B}}</ref> In the study done by Bonatti and Crane,{{who|date=November 2017}} [[peridotite]] and [[gabbro]] rocks were discovered in the edges of the transform ridges.  These rocks are created deep inside the Earth's mantle and then rapidly exhumed to the surface.<ref name=Bonatti/> This evidence helps to prove that new seafloor is being created at the mid-oceanic ridges and further supports the theory of plate tectonics.

Active transform faults are between two tectonic structures or faults. [[Fracture zone]]s represent the previously active transform-fault lines, which have since passed the active transform zone and are being pushed toward the continents.  These elevated ridges on the ocean floor can be traced for hundreds of miles and in some cases even from one continent across an ocean to the other continent.