![Volcanic activity and the Earth’s tectonic plates[Credits : Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/53/4953-004-9D51CA25.jpg)
Stratovolcanoes tend to form at subduction zones, or convergent plate margins, where an oceanic plate slides beneath a continental plate and contributes to the rise of magma to the surface. At rift zones, or divergent margins, shield volcanoes tend to form as two oceanic plates pull slowly apart and magma effuses upward through the gap. Volcanoes are not generally found at strike-slip zones, where two plates slide laterally past each other. “Hot spot” volcanoes may form where plumes of lava rise from deep within the mantle to the Earth’s crust far from any plate margins.
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