Vocabulary
The thinnest layer of the Earth
the crust
There are ______________ main layers of the Earth.
four
Created the Continental Drift Theory
Alfred Wegener
Earthquakes and Volcanoes are usually located in relation to these
plate boundary movments
The Himalayan mountains are the result of a ___________________________ boundary.
Convergent boundary
A number of rigid, but moving, pieces of Earth's surface
Tectonic plates.
The thickest layer of the Earth
The mantle.
Why did the scientific community reject Alfred Wegner (1 reason)
Was an outsider, Outside his field of study, German
The mid-ocean ridge is an example of a ____________________ boundary and ___________________ occurs here where new ocean floor is formed.
Divergent boundary; sea-floor spreading
Hot air or liquid is less ________________ than cool air or liquide
Dense
The theory that all continents are fragments of Pangaea now drifting apart
Continental Drift Theory
Plates float on top of the _______________________.
Asthenosphere
Evidence of tropical plants were found on this continent
Antarctica
Name five of the major plates
North American plate, South American plate, Eurasian Plate, Indoaustralia plate, African plate, Antarctica plate, Nazac plate, Pacfic plate
_________________ are a result from the build up of stress at a plate boundary.
Earthquakes
States that youngest rocks of ocean floor are at divergin boundaries, moving outward
seafloor spreading
The rigid part of the Earth including the crust and the upper mantle (makes up the plates of the Earth)
Lithosphere
Pangaea existed this many millions of years ago
175 million, 250 million, 550million 355 million
250 million years ago
This is the mechanism (what causes) the plates to move
Convection cycles in the mantle
The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a ____________________ boundary.
Transform boundary
Although the hottest layer of the Earth, this layer is solid metal
The inner core
The Earth's crust is thinnest under the _____________________ and thickest under the _____________________.
thinnest under the ocean and thickest under the continents.
Continental Drift Theory was not accepted because it did not explain this
how the continents moved (mechanism)
What geological event happens at convergent boundaries
Subduction (where volcanoes often occur) )
Three pieces of evidence support continental drift?
The fit of the continents, the distribution of fossils, a similar sequence of rocks, ancient climates and the wandering of the Earth's polar regions