The process by which new oceanic lithosphere forms as magma rises to Earth's surface and solidifies a mid-ocean ridge.
What is sea-floor spreading?
100
The process by which Earth's crust breaks apart; can occur within continental crust or oceanic crust.
What is rifting?
100
The process by which supercontinents form and break apart over millions of years.
What is the supercontinent cycle?
200
Alfred Wegener couldn't explain the mechanism or processes behind the movement of continents.
What is the reason why Alfred Wegener's theory was not accepted until much later?
200
The very slow movement of large tectonic places causes the changes in Earth’s crust.
What is the theory of plate tectonics?
200
A long, undersea mountain chain that has a steep, narrow valley at its center, that forms as a magma rises from the asthenosphere, and that creates new oceanic lithosphere as tectonic plates move apart.
What is mid-ocean ridge
200
A piece of lithosphere that has a unique geologic history and that may be part of a larger piece of lithosphere, such as a continent.
What is a terrane?
200
The supercontinent that formed 300 million years ago and that began to break up beginning 250 million years ago.
What is Pangea?
300
Wegener's theory states that 250 million years ago, the land that makes up our continents was once one great land mass, or supercontinent that was called _______?
What is Pangea?
300
When plates slide or, perhaps more accurately, grind past each other.
What is transform boundaries?
300
The study of the alignment of magnetic minerals in rock specifically as it relates to the reversal of Earth's magnetic poles; also the magnetic properties that rock acquires during formation.
What is paleomagnetism?
300
The process in which a terrane becomes part of a continent.
What is accretion?
300
The two continents that Pangea broke up into.
What is Laurasia and Gondwanaland?
400
If the continents had once been joined, fossils of the same plants and animals should be found in areas that had once been connected.
What is evidence that supports Wegner’s hypothesis of the continental drift?
400
When two plates slide apart from each other.
What is divergent boundaries?
400
When tectonic plates move, sudden shifts can occur along their boundaries.
What is earthquakes?
400
When continents move, the flow of air and moisture around the globe changes and causes climates to change.
What is the effects of continental change?
400
The single, large ocean that covered Earth's surface during the time the supercontinent Pangea existed.
What is Panthalassa?
500
Age and types of rock in the costal regions of widely separated areas such as western Africa and eastern South America, matched closely.
What is Geologic evidence supporting Wegener's hypothesis.
500
When two plates slide towards each other commonly forming either a subduction zone (if one plate moves underneath the other) or a continental collision
What is convergent boundaries?
500
The movement of heated material due to differences in density that are caused by differences in temperatures.
What is convection?
500
When population are separated, new species may evolve from existing species.
What is Changes in life as continents rift or mountains form?
500
About 50 million years ago, India collided with Eurasia and the Himalaya Mountains began to form in which Era?