Plate Tectonics
This process occurs when one tectonic plate moves under another due to differences in density.
What is subduction?
The hottest and innermost layer of Earth, composed mostly of iron and nickel.
What is the inner core?
Soil is mostly made from this material.
What is weathered rock and minerals?
The type of rock formed when magma or lava cools.
What is igneous rock?
Wind, water, and ice moving sediment from one location to another.
What is erosion?
The scientist who first proposed the idea of continental drift.
Who is Alfred Wegener?
The layer of Earth that is responsible for plate movement due to convection currents.
What is the mantle?
The term for organic matter in soil that makes it rich and fertile.
What is humus?
This type of rock is created from layers of compacted sediments.
What is sedimentary rock?
The farming method that slows down erosion by cutting steps into a hillside.
What is terrace farming?
These underwater mountain ranges form due to seafloor spreading.
What are mid-ocean ridges?
The rigid outermost layer of Earth that includes the crust and upper mantle.
What is the lithosphere?
This type of weathering occurs when acidic rain dissolves minerals in rocks.
What is chemical weathering?
Metamorphic rocks form due to these two factors.
What are heat and pressure?
The process of changing the crops farmers plant year after year in order to not deplete the soil nutrients.
What is crop rotation?
The name for the boundary where two tectonic plates scrape past each other.
What is a transform boundary?
The primary reason the layers do not mix together.
What is density?
The best soil mixture for plant growth and drainage.
What is humus, silt, clay, and sand or loam?
This type of igneous rock forms from lava cooling quickly outside a volcano.
What is extrusive igneous rock?
This method of plowing follows the natural shape of the land to reduce soil erosion.
What is contour plowing?
This type of plate boundary is responsible for forming deep ocean trenches.
What is a convergent boundary?
This type of crust is mostly made of basalt, is thinner and very dense.
What is oceanic crust?
The process where sediments settle in a new location after being transported by wind, water, or ice.
What is deposition?
The process by which rocks are broken down into sediments.
What is weathering?
This environmental disaster in the 1930s was caused by severe drought and poor farming practices, leading to massive soil erosion in the Great Plains.