Tectonic Plates
These are large pieces of Earth’s crust.
What are tectonic plates?
This is the process where new ocean crust forms.
What is seafloor spreading?
This was the supercontinent that existed long ago.
What is Pangaea?
This is the outermost layer of Earth.
What is the crust?
This layer is hard and broken into plates.
What is the lithosphere?
This type of boundary is where plates move apart.
What is a divergent boundary?
Melted rock beneath Earth’s surface is called this.
What is magma?
This scientist proposed continental drift.
Who is Alfred Wegener?
This is the thickest layer of Earth.
What is the mantle?
This soft layer lies beneath the lithosphere.
What is the asthenosphere?
This boundary causes earthquakes when plates slide past each other.
What is a transform boundary?
This underwater feature is where seafloor spreading happens.
What is a mid-ocean ridge?
This is the idea that continents slowly move over time.
What is continental drift?
The lithosphere includes these layers of earth and is broken into tectonic plates.
What is the crust and the uppermost mantle.
Tectonic plates are part of this layer.
What is the lithosphere?
This process occurs when one plate sinks under another.
What is subduction?
As new crust forms, older crust does this.
What is moves away from the ridge?
Name one piece of evidence for continental drift.
What are fossils, matching coastlines, or rock layers?
The out core is ________ and the inner core is ____________.
What is liquid and solid?
This layer can slowly flow.
What is the asthenosphere?
Name two things caused by plate movement.
What are earthquakes, volcanoes, or mountains?
Name one type of evidence for seafloor spreading.
What are magnetic stripes, rock age, or molten material?
Why didn’t scientists first accept Wegener’s idea?
He couldn’t explain how continents moved.
This type of heat transfer in the mantle helps move plates.
What are convection currents?
Why do tectonic plates move?
Because the asthenosphere flows beneath them.