Describe the types of plate boundary responsible for earthquake hazards.

Earthquake hazards generally occur on or near specific types of tectonic plate boundary; they are the result of a build-up of stress between two tectonic plates that is released when the plates move past each other or collide with one another.Earthquakes occur at two types of plate boundary - convergent boundaries and transform or conservative boundaries. At convergent boundaries, a thinner, dense oceanic plate sinks under the heavier, buoyant continental plate in the process of subduction. This descending plate can melt to become magma and form chains of volcanoes when pockets of magma reach the Earth's surface. The descending oceanic plate may 'stick' and stress builds up between the plates - when this stress is released, an earthquake occurs.At transform or conservative boundaries, the tectonic plates slide past each other vertically. The two plates are in contact along a fault (an example of a fault is the San Andreas fault in California - a site where earthquakes occur regularly), and if friction builds up between the two plates, when it is released an earthquake will occur.