Continental Transform Faults

The continental lithosphere is not generated or destroyed in the same manner as the oceanic lithosphere. It is this difference that makes continental transform faults substantially different in behavior from their oceanic counterparts. The kinematic rules of plate tectonics commonly do not apply to them, because at their ends lithosphere is rarely created or destroyed. They all reflect the direction of relative plate motion, but they change their strike-length depending on the spreading and/or migration of the deformation along the boundaries they connect. The continental transform faults can be subdivided into those that connect two taphrogens (lithospheric structures formed from a large family of extensional structures; the extensional counterpart of orogens), those that connect two orogens (collective name for lithospheric structures that form along convergent plate boundaries), and those that connect an orogen with a taphrogen, although some of them are incertae sedis because of the extreme complexity of the deformation areas they connect. At FFF-type triple junctions, continental transform faults lead to the opening of lithospheric holes that can be of Karlıova-type or Kahramanmaraş-type depending on the geometry of the triple junction, the relative plate velocities, and whether at least one plate is oceanic. Structures resembling continental transform faults also have been observed on Venus.