Layers of the Earth
What is the outermost layer of Earth?
crust
What was the name of the supercontinent?
Pangaea
Do plates move toward or away from each other?
Away
Do plates move toward or away from each other?
Toward
How do plates move at a transform boundary?
Slide past each other
What layer is made mostly of hot, solid rock and is the thickest?
Mantle
Who proposed the theory of continental drift?
Alfred Wegener
What can form when plates pull apart on the ocean floor?
Mid-ocean ridge
What process occurs when one plate sinks beneath another?
Subduction
What natural disaster commonly occurs at transform boundaries?
Earthquakes
What semi-soft layer allows tectonic plates to move?
Asthenosphere
Name one piece of evidence Wegener used.
Fossils
What can form when continental crust pulls apart?
Rift valley
What can form when two continental plates collide?
Mountains
What famous California fault is a transform boundary?
San Andreas Fault
What causes movement in the mantle that helps move tectonic plates?
Convection currents
Why did matching fossils on separate continents support continental drift?
The continents were once connected
What happens to magma when plates separate?
It rises and can create new crust
What can form when an oceanic plate goes beneath another plate?
trenches
Is crust created, destroyed, or neither at transform boundaries?
Neither
What rigid layer includes the crust and uppermost mantle?
Lithosphere
Why didn't scientists initially accept Wegener's idea?
He couldn't explain what caused the continents to move
Is new crust created or destroyed at a divergent boundary?
Created
Which type of plate is usually subducted when an oceanic plate meets a continental plate?
Oceanic plate
Why are earthquakes common at transform boundaries?
Plates can get stuck, build up stress, then suddenly slip