Plate Boundaries for Dummies

Plate boundary classification

When it comes to reading through what passes for freelance "science" writing on line, our staffers had to develop thick skins in a hurry. The sad fact is that waaaaay too many people are quite happy to Google a topic and then attempt to reword whatever rubbish they find. It's bad enough if they start worrying around the edges of Wikipedia, but when they find another freelancer's load of crap, all bets are off. Here's hoping that the next generation of freelancers doesn't try to draw inspiration from John Carl Villanueva, a Filipino blogger at TheUniverseToday.com, and his take on "What Are Plate Boundaries?"

J. C., who passed himself off as a "physics teacher turned freelance writer," started from the definitive reference for plate tectonics at the USGS and... well, he then made a mess of it. Oh, he got the list of three types – convergent, divergent, and transform – right, but what sixth-grader wouldn't? It's what he did from that point forward that had our staff geologist squirming in discomfort:

• "In Plate Tectonic Theory, the lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates, which undergo some large scale motions." – WTF does "some large scale motions" even mean, anyway?
• "Divergent boundaries are those that move away from one another." – We'll only say this once: the boundaries do not move, the adjoining plates move. Idjit.

• "As the gap between the two plates widen, [sic] the underlying layer may be soft enough for molten lava underneath to push its way upward. This upward push results in the formation of volcanic islands. Molten lava that succeeds in breaking free eventually cools and forms part of the ocean floor." – So much bullshit, so little time... There isn't a sea of "molten lava" down there; much less lava that "breaks free." Good lord, what rubbish!
• "Some formations due to divergent plate boundaries are... Lake Baikal in Siberia and Lake Tanganyika in East Africa." – No, John Carl: Baikal isn't the rift, the Baikal Rift is named for the lake; and Lake Tanganyika isn't a rift, it's a lake in the East African Rift Valley.
• "Convergent boundaries are responsible for producing the deepest and tallest structures on Earth." – Mt. Everest isn't the tallest "structure" on Earth, it's the highest. Mauna Loa is actually taller by 1,000 feet; plus it isn't on a plate boundary...
• "Among those that have formed due to convergent plate boundaries are K2 and Mount Everest, the tallest peaks in the world. They formed when the Indian plate got subducted underneath the Eurasian plate. " – Sorry, J. C., the oceanic leading edge of the Indian plate was subducting before the Indian subcontinent collided with the Eurasian plate. In a continent-continent collision, neither plate subducts.

• "The San Andreas fault in North America is perhaps the most popular transform boundary." – If the truth be told, the San Andreas isn't very popular at all...
• "Transform boundary is also known as transform fault or conservative plate boundary." – Technically speaking, a transform fault is not the same thing as a transform boundary: it's an offset in a rift zone and (usually) a section of a fracture zone. And while we're at it, what does "conservative" mean in this context, John Carl?

This, dear reader, is the sort of half-assed "science" we've come to expect from freelancers whose only real interest is pumping out content to get more pennies. That's why we call them the Dumbass of the Day for their efforts.

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