The San Andrean Fault is an example of

Key Points

Transform fault:

• At a transform boundary, two plates slip past one another laterally.
• This slippage occurs along great vertical fractures called transform faults.
• Because the plate movement is basically parallel to a transform boundary, these Faults neither create new crust nor destroy old.
• Transform faults are associated with a great deal of seismic activity, commonly producing shallow-focus earthquakes.
• Most transform faults are found along with the mid-ocean ridge system, where they form short offsets in the ridge perpendicular to the spreading axis.
• However, in some places, transform faults extend for great distances, occasionally through the continental lithosphere.
• For example, the most famous fault system in the United States, the San Andreas Fault in California, is a transform fault between the Pacific and North American plates. 

Additional Information

• At a convergent boundary, plates collide and as such are sometimes called “destructive” boundaries because they result in the removal or compression of the surface crust.
• Convergent plate boundaries are responsible for some of the most massive and spectacular earthly landforms: major mountain ranges, volcanoes, and oceanic trenches. The three types of convergent boundaries are Oceanic–Continental Convergence, Oceanic–Oceanic Convergence, and Continental–Continental Convergence.

• At a divergent Fault or Spreading Fault,  magma from the asthenosphere wells up in the opening between plates. This upward flow of molten material produces a line of volcanic vents that spill out basaltic lava onto the ocean floor, with the plutonic rock gabbro solidifying deeper below. 
• Divergent boundaries are “constructive” because the material is being added to the crustal surface at such locations.

​Subduction Fault:

• Subduction Fault refers to such a fault when one plate gets beneath another plate.
• Such subduction zones are the zone of frequently erupting volcanoes.
• Metamorphic rocks often develop in association with subduction zones. The margin of a subducting oceanic plate is subjected to increasing pressure, although relatively modest heating, as it begins to descend—this can lead to the formation of high-pressure, low-temperature metamorphic rocks, such as blueschist. In addition, the magma generated in the subduction zone may cause contact metamorphism as it rises through the overlying continental rocks.

Hence The San Andrean Fault is an example of Transform Fault.