Drifting Continents
The name given to the ancient supercontinent where all landmasses were once joined together.
What is Pangaea?
The type of boundary where two tectonic plates move apart from each other.
What is a Divergent boundary?
The process by which tectonic plates move apart at mid-ocean ridges.
What is Seafloor spreading?
A long string of volcanoes located around the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
What is the Ring of Fire?
The modern theory that replaced Continental Drift.
What is Plate Tectonics?
The scientist who is most famous for proposing the theory of continental drift.
Who is Alfred Wegener?
The type of boundary where two plates slide horizontally past one another.
What is a Transform boundary?
This type of rock is identified as a primary product of seafloor spreading.
What is Volcanic rock?
The Hawaiian Islands are continuously forming because the Pacific Plate is moving over this.
What is a Hot spot?
The layer of the Earth located below the lithosphere where convection currents occur.
What is the Asthenosphere?
The coastlines of these two continents look like they fit together like puzzle pieces, serving as early evidence for drift.
What are South America and Africa?
A specific type of fault where the ground movement is mostly horizontal, often found at transform boundaries.
What is a Strike-slip fault?
According to plate tectonics, new seafloor is formed here.
What are Mid-ocean ridges?
These two major events occur along specific zones or plate boundaries, serving as evidence for plate tectonics.
What are Earthquakes and Volcanoes?
These circular movements in the asthenosphere are believed to carry the continental plates.
What are Convection currents?
After new evidence was uncovered, the modern Theory of Plate Tectonics replaced this earlier theory.
What is Continental Drift?
Plate tectonics theory states that this material is constantly being formed at mid-ocean ridges and destroyed at subduction zones.
What is Seafloor (or Ocean Floor)?
This is the layer of the Earth where old seafloor ends up after diving down at a subduction zone.
What is the Mantle?
Unlike volcanoes and earthquakes, these features (caused by space rocks) are NOT considered evidence for plate tectonics.
What are Meteorite craters?
Evidence for the theory is found in the fact that earthquakes and volcanoes do not occur randomly, but are typically found along these specific "zones."
What are Plate Boundaries?
Alfred Wegener originally suggested that the continents might have been forced apart by forces related to this daily planetary motion.
What is Earth's Rotation?
When one plate dives beneath another into the mantle, the process is called this.
What is Subduction?
Scientific evidence shows that the rocks making up these deep underwater depressions are much younger than the rocks found on continents.
What are Ocean Basins?
Deep valleys called trenches are usually formed when this action occurs between plates.
What is Subduction (or plates colliding)?
Alfred Wegener originally thought this force (related to the Earth spinning) might move continents, though he was incorrect.
What is Earth's rotation?