Tectonic Boundaries Between Northern America And Pacific Plates

Earthquakes and volcanoes go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly or rice and beans. Where there are volcanos there are usually tectonic plates beneath them either pushing against or pulling away from one another. Take for instance the Cascade Mountain Range in Northern California and stretches through Oregon and into Vancouver, British Columbia and sits northeast of the San Andreas Fault line that runs 750 miles through California. This fault creates the tectonic boundary between the Northern America and Pacific Plates. The three types of plate boundaries are convergent, meaning basically they are colliding together, divergent meaning they are pulling away from one another and transform which means that the plates slide past each other. During the convergence process some plates will subduct beneath the other.

As the plate subducts under the North American Plate it pushes up continental rocks forming a volcanic arc, a line of volcanic mountains occurring over a subduction zone, hence the Cascade Mountain Range. There are many National Parks and Monuments located in these volcanically active areas. There are four National Parks and many National Monuments located in the Cascade Mountain Range. Mount Rainier National Park hosts the tallest and still active volcano in the Cascades, Mount Rainier. In 1980 President Regan declared Mount St. Helens Volcanic National Monument in order to give scientists a chance to study the devastation and recovery from the event. These parks and monuments offer exciting scientific evidence of how the geological process works and I believe that if the public is knowledgeable about the safety precautions and possible ramifications after a seismic or volcanic event, it should be up to the public to make an informed decision whether they want to live in or near the danger