Geological Terms
What is the term for evidence of life from the past, such as fossilized bones
What is a fossil
What is the sudden shaking of Earth's surface commonly known as?
What is an earthquake
What is Earth's outermost layer of hard, solid rock that is underneath the soil called?
What is the outer layer
What extinct reptile lived about 300 million years ago and is often used as evidence in studying plate tectonics?
What is a Mesosaurus
What are the very large sections of hard, solid rock that make up Earth’s outer layer called?
What are plates
What term describes a diagram that shows what the inside of something looks like?
What is a cross section
What do we call the sudden pushing out of lava from a volcano?
What is a volcanic eruption
What is the term for the layer of liquid rock below the Earth's surface?
What is magma
What is the term for the study of evidence of life from the past?
What is paleontology
What is the place where two plates meet known as?
What is a plate boundary
What do we call the layer of soft, solid rock underneath Earth's plates?
What is the mantle
What type of volcanic activity includes eruptions and lava flows?
What is volcanic activity
What layer of the Earth is solid and includes the plates?
What is the outer layer
What type of fossil evidence can include footprints or leaf prints?
What are trace fossils
What do we call the movement of tectonic plates that move toward each other?
What is convergent movement
What is the term for a natural spring that sends hot water and steam suddenly into the air?
What is a geyser?
What is the long, deep indentation in the ocean floor formed when two plates move together called?
What is a trench
What is the layer beneath the crust that is semi-solid and allows for the movement of tectonic plates?
What is the mantle
What do scientists call the preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms?
What are fossils
What is the movement of tectonic plates that move apart known as?
What is divergent movement
What is the term for the slow pulling apart of land that is caused by plate movement?
What is rifting
What is the term for the process where gas, lava, and ash are pushed out on the surface of Earth?
What is volcanic activity
What is the name for the underwater mountain range formed when two tectonic plates move apart?
What is a mid-ocean ridge
The outside or top layer of something.
What is the surface
What is the system that describes the interaction of the Earth's lithosphere and asthenosphere?
What is plate tectonics