Layers of the Earth
The outermost, rocky layer of the Earth where we live?
What is the crust
A fracture in rock along which movement has occurred.
What is a fault?
Molten rock once it reaches the Earth's surface.
What is lava?
The large, rigid pieces of the Earth's crust and upper mantle that float and move around.
What are tectonic plates?
What is the study of the earth, its structure, and the history of its changes called?
what is Geology?
The thick layer that makes up the largest portion of the Earth's interior between the crust and the core.
What is the mantle?
The point on the Earth's surface directly above where an earthquake begins underground.
What is the epicenter?
Volcanoes formed by broad, gentle slopes created by layers of fluid lava flows.
What are shield volcanoes?
Mountains formed when molten rock pushes up the Earth's crust without erupting onto the surface.
What are dome mountains?
What theory states that the earth's crust is broken into large pieces that move around slowly?
What is Plate tectonics?
The innermost layer of the Earth, composed mostly of solid iron and nickel.
What is the inner core?
Instruments used by scientists to detect and record seismic waves.
What are seismographs?
The major belt of volcanoes and earthquakes that encircles the Pacific Ocean.
What is the Ring of Fire?
Mountains formed when rock layers are buckled and bent upward by tremendous compressive forces.
What are folded mountains?
A break or crack in the earth's crust along which rocks move.
What is a fault?
The boundary zone between the Earth's crust and mantle.
What is the Mohorovičić discontinuity (or Moho)?
The scale used to measure the energy released by an earthquake.
What is the Richter scale (or moment magnitude scale)?
A volcano that has not erupted in recorded history but is expected to erupt again.
What is a dormant volcano
Mountains formed along fault lines where massive blocks of rock are moved up or down.
What are fault-block mountains?
Vibrations of the earth produced by the rapid release of energy within the crust.
What are earthquakes?
This extremely hot, liquid layer of iron and nickel creates the Earth's magnetic field.
What is the outer core?
The underground point of origin where an earthquake actually occurs.
What is the hypocenter?
Steeply sloped volcanoes built from alternating layers of lava and pyroclastic debris (ash and cinders).
What are composite volcanoes?
The boundary where two tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally.
What is a strike-slip boundary?
The rigid outer shell of the Earth, consisting of the crust and the very top of the mantle.
What is the lithosphere?