Transform fault

[1] It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone.

Most such faults are found in oceanic crust, where they accommodate the lateral offset between segments of divergent boundaries, forming a zigzag pattern.

This results from oblique seafloor spreading where the direction of motion is not perpendicular to the trend of the overall divergent boundary.

[3] Geophysicist and geologist John Tuzo Wilson recognized that the offsets of oceanic ridges by faults do not follow the classical pattern of an offset fence or geological marker in Reid's rebound theory of faulting,[4] from which the sense of slip is derived.

Transform faults specifically accommodate lateral strain by transferring displacement between mid-ocean ridges or subduction zones.

[citation needed] Transform faults are commonly found linking segments of divergent boundaries (mid-oceanic ridges or spreading centres).

[8] This evidence helps to prove that new seafloor is being created at the mid-oceanic ridges and further supports the theory of plate tectonics.

In the case of ridge-to-ridge transforms, the constancy is caused by the continuous growth by both ridges outward, canceling any change in length.

The most prominent examples of the mid-oceanic ridge transform zones are in the Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa.

Known as the St. Paul, Romanche, Chain, and Ascension fracture zones, these areas have deep, easily identifiable transform faults and ridges.

The San Andreas Fault links the East Pacific Rise off the West coast of Mexico (Gulf of California) to the Mendocino triple junction (Part of the Juan de Fuca plate) off the coast of the Northwestern United States, making it a ridge-to-transform-style fault.

This has resulted in the folded land of the Southland Syncline being split into an eastern and western section several hundred kilometres apart.

This oceanic transform fault is nearly completely submerged, but ~10 km is exposed in northern Iceland, near the town of Húsavík.