Moving Earth
This scientist first introduced the idea of "continental drift" in 1915.
Who is Alfred Wegner?
This Arizona landmark is 277 miles long and nearly a mile deep.
What is the Grand Canyon?
This powerful event happens when plates suddenly break free and move.
What is an earthquake?
The presence of shark and squid fossils proves that before the area became land, it was once this.
What is under water (or a marine environment)?
This undersea mountain range stretches almost the entire length of the Atlantic.
What is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
This river is responsible for carving out the Grand Canyon.
What is the Colorado River?
Mountains form when plates do this, causing the land to buckle and rise.
What is pushing directly against each other (converging)?
There are about 20 of these distinct "layers" visible in the canyon walls.
What are strata?
This theory was born in the 1960s after scientists mapped the ocean floor.
What is Plate Tectonics?
The canyon is located on this high, flat landform west of the Rockies.
What is a plateau (the Colorado Plateau)?
This process occurs when magma rises through cracks, pushing the crust apart.
What is seafloor spreading?
This is the color of the rock found at the very bottom of the canyon.
What is black?
In the 1950s, scientists used new technology to map this, leading to new discoveries.
What is the ocean floor?
This is the specific process that allowed the river to dig the canyon.
What is erosion?
This is the specific name for the layer that includes the crust and upper mantle.
What is the lithosphere?
This substance is responsible for giving the canyon's rock layers their red color.
What is iron oxide?
Wegener’s theory was slightly wrong because continents are just parts of these.
What are plates (or tectonic plates)?
This is the reason the Northern Rim has forests while the Southern Rim is a desert.
What is elevation? (The Northern Rim is over 1,000 feet higher, making it colder).
This term describes the process where one plate is driven under another.
What is subduction?
The oldest rock at the bottom of the canyon is approximately this old.
What is two billion years?