Continental Drift
What scientist came up with the hypothesis of Continental Drift?
Alfred Wegener
What are tectonic plates?
Broken parts of the lithosphere that move on top of the mantle.
What boundary is created when two plates smash into each other?
Convergent boundary
Heat transfer is really neat. It always goes....
from hot to cold, from hot to cold, from hot to cold.
(Say WHAT!?!)
What is the equation for density?
Mass/Volume=Density
What is the name of the super-continent that existed hundreds of millions of years ago before it split apart into the seven we have today?
Pangaea
What land formation is the longest chain of divergent boundary mountains, that extends into all of Earth’s oceans.
Mid-Ocean Ridge
What boundary happens when two plates are pulling away from one another?
Divergent boundary
What is convection?
The transfer of heat by the movement of heated fluid.
Do things that are more dense sink or float?
Sink
What is the hypothesis of Continental Drift?
The idea that the continents used to all be one super-continent, but spread apart over millions of years.
What is the process that happens at mid-ocean ridges adds new material to the ocean floor and pushes the older material away?
Sea-floor Spreading
What boundary occurs when two plates are sliding in opposite directions of each other?
Transform boundary.
In what part of the physical layers of the earth do convection currents occur?
Asthenosphere
Name ONE of the things that fossils tell scientists?
(Hint: There are three options)
1. History of the earth
2. What the environment used to be like
3. How species changed over time
True of False:
The Hypothesis of Continental Drift and the Theory of Plate Tectonics are the same thing.
False: Continental Drift has no explanation of how the plates moved. This is also why scientists of the time did not agree with the idea.
What land formation occurs when older, denser oceanic crust sinks underneath younger, less dense oceanic crust?
Ocean Trench
What two land formations do convergent boundaries make?
Mountains and ocean trenches.
Think of the oil and thyme experiment we showed in class. Where did the thyme rise while in the glass container?
Center of the container (above the heat source)
Which type of crust is denser: oceanic or continental?
Which type of crust is thicker: oceanic or continental?
Oceanic crust is denser.
Continental crust is thicker.
Name TWO of the pieces of evidence that were used to support Continental Drift.
1. Evidence from landforms
2. Evidence from fossils
3. Evidence from climate
What process occurs when the ocean floor sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and gets swallowed by the mantle.
Subduction
What two land formations do divergent boundaries make?
Rift valleys and the mid-ocean ridge
In a convection current, why do the particles in the fluid eventually sink?
They particles move away from the heat source, cool down, and become more dense, causing them to sink.
How do molecules with that lose heat react?
(How active are they? Move apart or together? Less or More dense?)
Less active, move closer together, and are more dense.