Earth's Layers
The outermost layer of the Earth
What is the crust?
A single landmass of all the continents.
What is Pangaea?
A volcano that is tall and has violent eruptions.
What is a cinder cone volcano?
Large slabs of rock that form the crust.
What are plates?
Border areas between plates.
What are plate boundaries?
The layer of the Earth below the crust?
Mantle
The scientist who came up with the theory of Pangaea.
Who is Alfred Wegener?
A short volcano that erupts gently.
What is a shield volcano?
About how many plates are there?
12
Earthquakes occur mostly at which type of boundary?
Transform
A liquid layer of the Earth?
What is the outer core?
List three pieces of evidence that Pangaea once existed.
1. Fit like puzzle pieces
2. Glacial deposits
3. Mountains/Rocks
4. Fossils
What type of lava produces violent eruptions?
Very viscous
Wet (gases and water vapor)
The layer of the Earth plates are found in.
What is the lithosphere?
When two plates move away from each other what type of boundary is formed?
Divergent
An extremely hot layer of the Earth made of solid metal.
What is the core?
A rock has a mass of 20 g and a volume of 5 mL. What is its density?
4 g/mL
What type of eruption creates a pyroclastic flow?
Explosive
If plates where to stop moving, what could you predict about the mantle and the core of the Earth?
Convection currents have stopped due to the core cooling down.
New sea floor (sea floor spreading) occurs at which type of boundary, and with which type of plates?
Divergent, two oceanic plates.
A layer of the Earth made of a semi-solid material that causes the plates to move.
What is the asthenosphere?
Explain why some substances are more dense than others.
The molecules in more dense objects are more tightly packed than those that are less dense.
Explain the process of the formation of a volcano. Include density in your response.
One plate (more dense), sinks below the other creating a subduction zone. The plate/crust sinking below begins to melt due to heat from the mantle. This melting rock forms magma which can move up through the crust, creating a volcano.
Explain how convection currents work and how they affect plate tectonics.
Convection currents in the mantle are caused by material heating up, becoming less dense and therefore rising. As the material rises, it cools down and becomes more dense, therefore sinking. Convection currents drive the movement of plate tectonics.
Two continental plates converging can create...
Mountains