Continental Drift
Seafloor Spreading
Earth's Plates
Plate Boundaries
Effects of Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics Misc.
100
This is the name of the proposed "supercontinent" where all the earth's continents were once joined together.
What is Pangaea?
100
Seafloor Spreading occurs at what type of plate boundary?
What is a divergent boundary?
100
This is the underlaying (plastic-rock) flowing layer which allows the earth's plates to move.
What is the Asthenosphere?
100
This type of plate boundary involves two plates moving apart from one another.
What is a divergent boundary?
100
These features are produced on earth when two continents collide.
What are mountains?
100

What type of volcanoes do not form at plate boundaries?

Hotspot volcanoes

200
This is the meteorologist who first proposed the Theory of Continental Drift
Who is Alfred Wegener?
200
These features form as new crust rises to the surface during seafloor spreading
What are mid-ocean ridges?
200
This is the rigid upper layer of the earth which inlcudes the earth's crust and upper most mantle.
What is the lithosphere?
200
This type of plate boundary involves two plates moving toward each other.
What is a convergent boundary?
200
These features are produced on the coasts of continents where oceanic crust moves underneath the continent.
What are volcanoes or volcanic arcs?
200

The Appalachian Mtns. were once taller than the Himalayas.  What changed?

Over millions of years, weathering from wind, water, and gravity eroded the Appalacian Mtns.

300
This is how many years ago earth's "supercontinent" began to split apart.
What is 200-250 million years ago?
300
This ocean is currently growing in size due to seafloor spreading.
What is the Atlantic Ocean?
300

What happens to lithospheric plates over time?

They are recycled into new magma as oceanic plates subduct; they can then become new igneous rock elsewhere.

300
This type of plate boundary involves one plate sliding past another plate.
What is a transform boundary?
300
These natural disasters occur when a sudden movement occurs along transform boundaries.
What are earthquakes?
300

What type of plate boundary is the San Andreas fault?

transform boundary

400

Name at least two types of evidence that were initially used to support the Theory of Continental Drift.

What are 1. similar shapes of coastlines 2. matching fossils & rock layers on diff. continents 3. major climate change (palm tree fossils in Arctic)

400
This was the first evidence to support the idea of the reversal of earth's magnetic field.
What is matching strips of polarity on each side of a seafloor spreading region?
400

This is the average distance the earth's plates move per year.

What is 1 inch / year?

400
This is the term for one plate being forced underneath another plate.
What is Subduction?
400
This is the name of fault found in California where several major earthquakes have occured.
What is the San Andreas Fault?
400

If two oceanic plates converge, which one will be subducted?

The older, cooler, denser oceanic plate will subduct under a younger oceanic plate.

500

Why are palm tree fossils sometimes found in Antarctica?

The continent of Antarctica must have been closer to the equator at one time where the climate was warmer.

500

Where is the oldest section of ocean floor found when compared to a mid-ocean ridge?

Oldest rock is farthest from mid-ocean ridge; closest rock is youngest.

500

These are the two types of crust found on earth and their densities and thicknesses?

What is continental crust (less dense, but thicker) and oceanic crust (more dense, but thinner)?

500
This is the term for the fracture created when one plate suddenly slides past another plate.
What is a fault?
500
These two features form in the ocean when one oceanic plate is forced below another oceanic plate
What are trenches and volcanic islands?
500

Name one type of plate boundary that DOES NOT produce volcanoes or mountains.

Transform boundary such as the San Andreas fault.

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