Correct Response: A. Passive plate margins of continents, such as the eastern coast of the United States, are composed of continental crustal rocks covered in thick sedimentary deposits. A geologic platform is the part of a continent covered by horizontal or gently tilted, mostly sedimentary, strata. Along passive plate margins these deposits make up the thick sediments of the continental shelf. Forearc basins (B) form in association with subduction zones at active and not passive plate margins. An accretionary wedge (C) is also associated with subduction zones at convergent plate boundaries where an oceanic plate is subducted beneath a continental plate. Passive continental plate margins are not associated with active fault zones (D) because the continental crust at these margins is typically not being fractured or compressed by tectonic forces.
