Triple junction

For the solar cell configuration, see Multi-junction solar cell.
Not to be confused with triple point or triple divide.
Main tectonic plate boundaries – ridge (red), trench (green), fault (black) – and corresponding triple junctions (yellow dots)

A triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction each of the three boundaries will be one of three types – a ridge (R), trench (T) or transform fault (F) – and triple junctions can be described according to the types of plate margin that meet at them (e.g. fault–fault–trench, ridge–ridge–ridge, or abbreviated F-F-T, R-R-R). Of the ten possible types of triple junctions only a few are stable through time (stable in this context means that the geometrical configuration of the triple junction will not change through geologic time). The meeting of four or more plates is also theoretically possible, but junctions will only exist instantaneously.[1]

  1. ^ C. M. R. Fowler; Connie May Fowler; Clarence Mary R. Fowler (2005). The Solid Earth: An Introduction to Global Geophysics. Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-521-58409-8.