Transform Fault

A transform fault or transform boundary, also known as conservative plate boundary since these faults neither create nor destroy lithosphere, is a type of fault whose relative motion is predominantly horizontal in either sinistral or dextral direction. Furthermore, transform faults end abruptly and are connected on both ends to other faults, ridges, or subduction zones. While most transform faults are hidden in the deep oceans where they form a series of short zigzags accommodating seafloor spreading (see graphic at right), the best-known (and most destructive) are those on land at the margins of tectonic plates. Transform faults are the only type of strike-slip fault that can be classified as a plate boundary. Transform faults show up on the seafloor as valleys that may be even deeper than the rift valleys of spreading ridges.