plate tectonics vocabulary

  1. Seismic Waves
    Vibrations that travel through Earth carrying the energy released during an earthquake.
  2. Pressure
    The force exerted on a surface divided by the area over which the force is exerted.
  3. Crust
    The crust is a layer of solid rock that includes both dry land and the ocean floor.
  4. Basalt
    Oceanic crust consists mostly of rocks such as basalt. Basalt is dark rock with a fine texture.
  5. Granite
    Continental crust, the crust that forms the continents, consists mainly of rocks such as granite. Granite is a rock that usually is a light color and has a coarse texture.
  6. Mantle
    The layer of hot, solid material between Earth’s crust and core.
  7. Lithosphere
    A rigid layer made up of the uppermost part of the mantle and the crust.
  8. Asthenosphere
    The soft layer of the mantle on which the lithosphere floats.
  9. Outer Core
    A layer of molten iron and nickel that surrounds the inner core of Earth.
  10. Inner Core
    A dense sphere of solid iron and nickel at the center of Earth.
  11. Radiation
    The transfer of energy through space.
  12. Conduction
    The transfer of heat within a material or between materials that are touching.
  13. Convection
    The transfer of heat by movement of a fluid.
  14. convection current
    The movement of a fluid, caused by differences in temperature, that transfers heat from one part of the fluid to another.
  15. Density
    The amount of mass in a given space; mass per unit volume.
  16. Continental Drift
    The hypothesis that the continents slowly move across Earth’s surface.
  17. Pangaea
    The name of the single landmass that broke apart 200 million years ago and gave rise to today’s continents.
  18. Fossil
    A trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock.
  19. Mid-ocean Ridge
    An undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; a divergent plate boundary.
  20. Sonar
    A device that determines the distance of an object under water by recording echoes of sound waves.
  21. Sea-floor Spreading
    The process by which molten material adds new oceanic crust to the ocean floor.
  22. Deep-Ocean Trench
    A deep valley along the ocean floor beneath which oceanic crust slowly sinks toward the mantle.
  23. Subduction
    The process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.
  24. Plate
    A section of the lithosphere that slowly moves over the asthenosphere, carrying pieces of continental and oceanic crust.
  25. Scientific Theory
    A well-tested concept that explains a wide range of observations.
  26. Plate Tectonics
    The theory that pieces of Earth_tm)s lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle.
  27. Fault
    A break in Earth’s crust where masses of rock slip past each other.
  28. Divergent Boundary
    A plate boundary where two plates move away from each other.
  29. Rift Valley
    A deep valley that forms where two plates move apart.
  30. Convergent Boundary
    A plate boundary where two plates move toward each other.
  31. Transform Boundary
    A plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions.
Author
f5iver
ID
307178
Card Set
plate tectonics vocabulary
Description
Plate Tectonics vocabulary
Updated