If a continental and an oceanic plate were to collide, which plate would go underneath?? Why?

Question

Please make a smart school book kind of answer not your opinion

Answer 1

When two plates collide, they BOTH begin to go under a bit. However, when a continental, and an oceanic plate collide, the oceanic plate ends up going under more. Why?

For one thing, the continental plate is up higher than the oceanic plate to begin with. After all, continental plates are always above sea level, and oceanic plates are always below sea level. With the advantage of heighth, the continental plate usually pushes the oceanic plate below.

For another thing, the continental plate is thicker than the oceanic plate, and therefore is going to be harder to crumple, squish, or flatten.

Also, the oceanic plate is already under an enormous downward pressure from all of the ocean on top of it.

Additionally, continental plates are lighter. They were formed by materials on the primordial earth that had floated to the surface, while oceanic plates are formed out of the magma from the center of the earth, which was below the continental plates because it was heavier at the time the plates were forming.

And finally, wet rocks are a great deal softer than drier rocks, so the continental plate is harder to bend or break than the oceanic plate, which is soaked all the way through.

Answer 2

lol, well I could give you a pretty darn in depth answer to this but I'll just give you the main jist of it instead. Ok so first off continental plates are made up of granitic rock wich is a relitively low density course-grained type of rock, whereas oceanic plates are made up of basaltic rock wich is a fine-grained high density rock. So when an oceanic plate colides with a continental plate in an active zone (place that is likely to have lots of volcanoes and earthquakes due to plate movement), the ocean one will be fored down because it is denser.