Sleet is rain or melted snow that freezes into ice pellets before hitting the
ground. Sleet only happens under very specific weather conditions.
There must be a layer of air near the ground whose temperature is below
freezing, where water turns to ice. Above this layer of freezing air must
be a layer of warmer air. As snow falls through the warm air, it melts or
partially melts into raindrops. As the melted snow falls through the cold
layer of air, it re-freezes. It forms ice pellets, or sleet, before hitting the
ground.
In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary or divergent plate boundary
(also known as a constructive boundary or an extensional boundary) is a
linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving
away from each other. Divergent boundaries within continents initially
produce rifts which eventually become rift valleys. Most active
divergent plate boundaries occur between oceanic plates and exist as
mid-oceanic ridges. Divergent boundaries also form volcanic islands
which occur when the plates move apart to produce gaps which molten
lava rises to fill.
Current research indicates that complex convection within the Earth's
mantle allows material to rise to the base of the lithosphere beneath each
divergent plate boundary. This supplies the area with vast amounts of
heat and a reduction in pressure that melts rock from the asthenosphere
(or upper mantle) beneath the rift area forming large flood basalt or lava
flows. Each eruption occurs in only a part of the plate boundary at any
one time, but when it does occur, it fills in the opening gap as the two
opposing plates move away from each other.
Over millions of years, tectonic plates may move many hundreds of
kilometers away from both sides of a divergent plate boundary. Because
of this, rocks closest to a boundary are younger than rocks further away
on the same plate.
Transform Plate Boundaries are locations where two plates slide past one
another. The fracture zone that forms a transform plate boundary is
known as a transform fault. Most transform faults are found in the ocean
basin and connect offsets in the mid-ocean ridges. A smaller number
connect mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones.
Transform faults can be distinguished from the typical strike-slip faults
because the sense of movement is in the opposite direction (see
illustration). A strike-slip fault is a simple offset; however, a transform
fault is formed between two different plates, each moving away from the
spreading center of a divergent plate boundary. When you look at the transform fault diagram, imagine the
double line as a divergent plate boundary and visualize which way the diverging plates would be moving.