Concepts
Transform Fault
Also Known As Transform Boundary
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A fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal, ending abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, whether another transform, a spreading ridge or a subduction zone. Most are found in oceanic crust, where they accommodate the lateral offset between segments of divergent boundaries in a zigzag pattern born of oblique seafloor spreading; the smaller number on land include the better-known San Andreas and North Anatolian faults. The concept was conceived by J. Tuzo Wilson.
Facts
Origin YearWilson conceived the transform fault; his Nature paper A New Class of Faults and Their Bearing on Continental Drift appeared in 1965. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
A transform fault is a special case of a strike-slip fault that also forms a plate boundary.
The zigzag pattern of oceanic transforms results from oblique seafloor spreading along divergent boundaries.
In Discipline
Proposed By
Wilson conceived of the transform fault, a major plate boundary where two plates move past each other horizontally.
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