Plate Tectonics Basics
What is the theory of plate tectonics?
This theory explains the movement of Earth's crust which is divided into plates.
What is convergent plate movement?
When to 2 plates come together
This scientist proposed the theory of continental drift.
Alfred Wegener
Where are mountains formed?
Convergent plate boundaries
What is a trench?
The zone where two tectonic plates are pulling apart
What is the crust?
This layer of the Earth is composed of tectonic plates.
What force drives the movement of tectonic plates?
Convection currents in the mantle
What is the name of the supercontinent that existed about 300 million years ago.
Pangea
Subduction in oceanic-oceanic plate convergence can result in the formation of ______.
Volcanoes
The crust is broken into about 13 large sections called
tectonic plates
What is a divergent boundary?
where two tectonic plates move away from each other.
What happens at a transform boundary?
Plates slide past each other
This type of rock formation provided evidence for continental drift due to its matching on different continents.
Mountains
The Mid Ocean Ridge is formed by what boundary?
Divergent boundary
The area where two tectonic plates meet is known as the -
plate boundary
What are the 3 types of plate boundaries?
divergent, convergent, and transform
This type of plate boundary is associated with mid-ocean ridges.
Divergent boundaries
This term describes the gradual movement of continents across the Earth's surface through geological time.
Continental drift
Rift Valleys are formed by which boundary?
Evidence supporting the concept of pangea
fossils
puzzle like matching up of the continents
matching mountain/rock formations
What is subduction?
Where oceanic crust goes back into the mantle at convergent boundaries
The Himalayan mountains are formed by what type of plate activity?
Convergent boundary
How did fossil evidence provide support for Wegener's theory of Continental Drift?
Fossils of the same kind were found on several different continents
What is likely to result when oceanic and continental plates collide at a convergent boundary?
subduction
What are the two types of crust that make up tectonic plates?
oceanic and continental