Earths Layers
The thin, solid outermost layer of the earth where we live
What is the crust?
The scientist who proposed the continental drift hypothesis
Who is Alfred Wegener?
The type of boundary where two tectonic plates move toward each other
What is a convergent boundary?
The process that adds new material to the ocean floor
What is sea-floor spreading?
Vibrations in the ground that result from movement along faults
What are earthquakes?
The thickest layer of the Earth made of hot,flowing rock
What is the mantle?
The name of the giant supercontinent that existed 300 million years ago
What is Pangaea?
The type of boundary where two plates pull apart from each other
Long underwater mountain chains where sea - floor spreading takes place
What are mid-ocean ridges?
Breaks in the Earth's crust where blocks of rock slip past each other
What are faults?
The rigid outer part of Earth, consisting of the crust and top solid mantle, broken into tectonic plates
What is the Lithosphere?
Preserved remains of ancient organisms that Wegener used as evidence across oceans
What are fossils?
The type of boundary where two plates slide past each other horizontally
What is a transform boundary?
Deep underwater canyons created during subduction
What are deep ocean trenches?
Crack in the earth's surface that caused a major earthquake in California in 1908
What is the San Andreas fault?
The upper layer of the mantle where convection currents flow and make plates move
What is the asthenosphere?
What did Wegener have to provide in order for people to believe his theory of continental drift?
Evidence
The geological feature formed when two continental plates collide
What are mountains?
The type of evidence found in the rock of the ocean floor showing reversals of Earth's magnetic field
What are magnetic stripes?
The specific boundary type that usually triggers strong earthquakes due to crust locking and suddenly moving forward
What is a transform boundary?
The two metals that make up the deep interior Earth core
What are iron and nickel?
Finding the remains of tropical plant fossils in this cold region proved past climate changes
What is Antarctica/Arctic)
The process where dense oceanic crust sinks back down into the mantle at a convergent boudnary
What is subduction?
Continuous, circular loops of fluid driven by temperature differences that transfer heat
What are convection currents?
The geological feature formed when melted subducted crust forces magma upward
What is a volcano?