Plate Tectonics
What did Alfred Wegener discover?
Continental Drift - that the continents were slowly drifting throughout time and were all once together in a supercontinent called Pangea (meaning "all Earth")
What are the Earth's layer in order from least dense to most dense?
Crust, Mantle, Outer Core, Inner Core
What is a convergent plate boundary and one example?
EX: The Himalayan Mountains
What is the name of the person who came up with the Continental Drift Theory?
Alfred Wegner
Which type of plate boundary creates a volcano as a landform?
Oceanic-Continental Convergence
What did Alfred Wegener NOT know?
WHY/HOW the contients were moving = PLATE TECTONICS
What layer is made up of the crust and upper mantle?
What layer is underneath the lithosphere?
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
What is a divergent plate boundary and an example?
Two plates moving aprat or away from each other.
EX: Mid-Oceanic Ridge or Seafloor Spreading Center
What is the continental drift theory
It is the theory that the are moving away from each other (or are moving)
What are the 4 main types of volcanoes?
1) Shield
2) Composite or Stratovolcano
3) Cinder Cone
4) Supervolcano
What is the driving force that moves the tectonic plates that was discovered during WWII?
SEAFLOOR SPREADING
Which layer are the tectonic plates found in?
The lithosphere
What is a transform boundary and an example?
Two plates that slide past each other and often create faults and/or shallow earthquakes.
EX: The San Andres Fault on the coast of California
What is the name of the super continent?
Pangaea
What is viscosity?
How thick/dense a liquid is - this changes how fast it flows.
Increased temperature = Decreases viscosity
Honey vs. Water
Describe a convection current and how it drives seafloor spreading. What is created at seafloor spreading centers?
Convcetion currrents are drien by hot liquid/gas rising and cool liquid/gas falling. This is driven by density differneces: hot things are heavier/denser and cool things are heavier/denser. This is how lava lamps, boiling water, and hot air balloons work. Hot magma in the mantle moves up to the crust and spews outh at mid-oceanic ridges and creates new baby crust. This is seafloor spreading.
Which layer are convection currents found in?
What are the two types of crust?
OCEANIC & CONTINENTAL
What evidence support the continental drift theory?
Matching coastlines of continents, similar fossils found on different continents, geological formations like mountain ranges that align across continents
What are the two types of lava/magma?
Basaltic
Rhyolitic
What are the 4 lines of evidence Alfred Wegener proposed for Continental Drift?
1) Continental Puzzle (South America & Africa's coasts fit together like puzzle pieces)
2) Matching Mountain Ranges (Appalachian Mountains & East African Mountain Range are same exact rock type and age)
3) Matching Fossils (Fossils of same species across all continents)
4) Ancient Climates (Evidence of Glaciation on Africa & Coal Deposits on Antarctica)
Which layer or layers create the magnetosphere or the invisible magnetic field around Earth that protects us from harmful UV rays and breaks up asteroids in our atmosphere?
The inner and outer core. The inner core is solid and the outer core is liquid. Both are made from Iron (Fe) and Nickel (Ni).
What is subduction?
The process by which a denser plate falls beneath a less-dense plate (when one plate slides underneath another one)
What are the names of the continents that Pangaea broke into?
Laurasia and Gondwana
What does pyroclastic mean?
Firey sediments